Holiday gift guide 2015 composite

Holiday Gift Guide 2015 DECEMBER 3, 2015 • ULSTER PUBLISHING • HUDSONVALLEYTIMES.COM

Shop local this year

What to give...

Ideas about your best bet for gifts for kids, foodies, clothes-hounds, gearheads, media fans, readers, and locavores of all sorts.

3, 2015 2 | December Holiday Gift Guide

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December 3, 2015 Holiday Gift Guide

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Eight stages of giving and getting A wee bit of rationality goes a long, long way

By Paul Smart

T

he holidays come upon many of us as a jittery time of ups and downs, wishes and disappointments, thoughtfulness and worry. In our home, the nine-year-old who turns ten on January 2 is busy making lists and wants to know whether those lists preclude him getting allowances or other special treats before the holidays. The wife is doing all she can to smile, never having liked this time of year much, and waiting for it all to be over. Me, I’m trying to find old thrills still living deep within, while simultaneously balancing the upcoming bills to figure out who gets what this year.

This has all gotten me returning to a classic of modern psychology and behavioral science that I encountered in my final year of high school: Erik Erikson’s “Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development.” I’m hoping it will provide some hints as to what to give whom (besides the piles of Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic cards, plus a Playstation 3 ensemble with games, that a certain someone in the household has been begging for on an hourly basis).

So what are the stages, and how do I reinterpret Erikson, elf-style? First comes Hope, from birth to two years old or so when mom’s the focus of everything, and two things rule the roost when it comes to gifts: things that can be shared with those who care for one, like books and blocks and soft things.

Plus things one can show some dominion over, like the “Mister Blue” we got from knowing parents; a strange multi-armed and big nosed creature our kid would spend hours arguing with. And the best gift to expect during this early stage? Aww, those googly smiles and cuddles.

Second stage: The Age of Willpower! Think of that time between ages two and four when potty training’s key. The learning to say no, and the ability to say it endlessly. The best gifts may be items one can feel in control of, like cars and dolls and bouncy balls and books you don’t mind having pages torn out of.

Best gifts to expect? How about those same cars, dolls and balls wrapped up in those shreds of torn paper?

Stage three, according to Erikson, is the time of Purpose and Initiative. Think hands in pants for two years or so! Gifts, besides pockets? Lego and art, baking or construction kits. We got through this age with epic television series like Avatar and the Miyazaki movies, which tend to focus on people trying to find a way in the world despite many obstacles.

Best gifts from them? We still have piles of stuff created with plastic toys, a hacksaw and glue gun (used under supervision), as well as drawers of drawings not sent on to relatives everywhere.

By the fourth stage, which lasts through age twelve and one’s primary-school years, the idea Erikson comes up with is a focus on competence, the battle between Industry and Inferiority. It’s about working through the neediness of infancy towards sports, school work, friendships, and that whole-body of stuff known as “extra-curricular.”

And piles of more stuff. What to buy? You name it.

It’s basically the entirety of the toy worlds, and online shopping, and sports equipment, and serious gaming. And fortunately... wish lists! As for what to expect as gifts during this time: your guess is as good as mine. Depends on what the other parent suggests, for the most part. This age isn’t necessarily about empathy.

Neither is the next, which Erikson labels Fidelity but we all survive as Adolescence, where identities start to form, puberty’s overcome (or not), everything’s up for exploration. Everyone’s changing minds as fast as the weather shifts over the Catskills. Gift ideas? Sleep items, app cards, promises, and not piles of things you think they need that you liked back when. What to expect as gifts? Maybe things they think you should like in

This issue’s cover, as well as the above painting, is by Woodstock-based artist Hatti Iles, whose oil paintings and watercolors can be found online at ulsterartistsonline.org.

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3, 2015 4 | December Holiday Gift Guide music and film, books and the like. Maybe something rote. Again, it’s a new world they’re in that’s not exactly inclusive of those not in their peer group.

Which brings us to Stage Six, when things slow down and start lasting for decades. Erikson called the first of these latter ages Love, or Early Adulthood, a time when one learns about true intimacy and aloneness, where one fits in the world, how to survive. Gifts over this span can embrace all those things one wishes to connect with the recipient over, as well as attempts to meet (impressively) their interests.

Roles play strong at this point, from parental to sibling or friendships. What to expect? Here’s where those gifting you may be at their most astute as givers, as empathizers. Be prepared to feel overwhelmed!

Next up, in the Seventh Stage, is true Adulthood, which EE sees as the embodiment of Caring. It lasts until around retirement age, when Medicare takes over. Gifts to give to these folks play on the multitude of responsibilities involved, from parenting and grandparenting to myriad jobs ... or crises of faith and self-worth. Jokey things have resonance, but also items that are useful. Or just plain beautiful.

Think deeply of who you’re giving to, but be prepared for the gift to have no impact.

As to what to expect from givers at this stage of

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Dan Barton grew up in Hyde Park, graduated from SUNY New Paltz, and has been working locally as a journalist for almost 25 years. He is currently editor of Ulster Publishing’s Kingston Times.

Jennifer Brizzi writes on food and health for newspapers, magazines and books, and does recipe development, cooking demonstrations and teaching. Her website is www.jenniferbrizzi.com.

Lisa Carroll is a busy mama to two little girls, a wife and a reporter for the Shawangunk Journal.

She resides in a quaint upstate village with her family, a cat and a goldfish called Purply.

Matthew D’Onofrio is an up-and-coming writer currently studying at SUNY New Paltz with experience and interest in entertainment and the way people communicate and share with one another.

Elisabeth Henry, a writer and an actress who lives in Hunter with her husband, where they raised their children, has written for many local and regional newspapers and magazines.

Lily Java is an author, teacher, and event planner residing in Brooklyn with her family, an excessive number of cats, and a frog. She spends much time in the Catskills.

Dante Kanter has been a Woodstock resident for 14 of his 16 years, and has received multiple awards for his poetry and short stories. He has attended the Iowa Young Writer’s Studio and the

New England Young Writer’s Conference.

Giada G. Labate, 9 years old, is in the 4th grade at Rondout Valley School and lives in Stone Ridge.

She loves Star Wars, Harry Potter and anything fantastical.

Barbara Mansfield is currently writing a middle grade fiction/recipe book with photographer husband Phil Mansfield (Bloomsbury, Wiley). She recently completed an illustrated book, Grumpy Fish Aid: Comfort Tips from Kids With Cancer distributed in hospitals nationwide.

Sixteen-year-old Onteora High School student Cally Mansfield is a veteran newspaper essayist and currently a rising star at the Paul Green Rock Academy.

Harry Matthews, who lives on an old farm on the Kaaterskill creek outside of Palenville with his partner Catherine and their three cats. He can most often be found in the woods building things, gardening, or plucking his tenor guitar on the porch of his cabin by the creek.

Paul Smart, a writer and editor for Ulster Publishing of two decades standing, has edited a number of other regional weekly and biweekly newspapers and has served as a radio host on WGXC-FM in Hudson, Catskill and Acra. He lives in Greene County.

Jack Warren’s work has been featured in the Goodlife Youth Journal as well as the Woodstock Day and Onteora High School literary magazines, the latter of which he is co-editor-in-chief. He is about to be able to vote next election.

life: follow that earlier maxim and be prepared to feel touched, yet simultaneously under-

Rosebud. What to expect as gifts? Much will miss the point as badly-chosen clothes and odd books arrive. No matter; the best giving here tends to be peer to peer, where as in the earliest years, it’s inevitably the thought that matters most. By the end, don’t think beyond trucks, dolls and balls in torn pages. Or googly smiles once again.

Does any of this help? Ah, what we don’t get right this year we can try in new ways next. Ditto for the entire ages of man we slide through.

And so it goes...

whelmed. It goes with the age.

Which brings us, finally, to Erikson’s final, eighth stage of psychological development: Maturity, Wisdom, the slide from retirement unto death. Much of the best times, as well as the worst, involve reflection, an attempt to match memories with emotions, and make sense of it all. The best gifts? Think sentimental.

Don’t try teaching new things, but find great versions of all they’ve already loved and cherished. Think

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A few tips on kids’ presents Who knows better what they want than a kid herself?

By Giada G. Labate

I

love this merry time of year. Cuddling up when it is cold, snowmen, snowball fights, baking cookies, decorating the Christmas tree, watching holiday movies. Hmmm... what am I forgetting? Oh, of course, presents!

I am nine years old and in the fourth grade.

I have lots of ideas for presents! I have heard many other kids talking about what they want.

Video games. Minecraft. I don’t know anything about Minecraft, but so many kids just can’t stop talking about it. I don’t know much about other hot topics, like Skylanders and Call of Duty. Both of these have toys that go along with them as well.

I really don’t like video games. I prefer books.

A good book series I would recommend is Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Lemony Snicket’s books are full of interesting mystery about three orphan children who must escape from a greedy villain who wants their fortune.

Another good series is William Joyce’s Guardians Series. This is perfect for Christmas because the first book is an interesting twist on the story of old St. Nick.

Only the bravest should read this next suggestion, The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch.

It is a little bit creepy. The beginning of these books starts with a warning: “Do not go beyond this page.” I read it anyway. The creepiness is combined with humor. I would like to get number four of this mysterious series.

Of course, I like toys, too! One thing I have been thinking about a lot and I think everyone else is too is Star Wars! Some good Star Wars toys are the interactive R2D2 and Star Wars Blade-Builder. A lot of other kids want a Star Wars commando kit, a half computer game and half toy. I don’t want that. What I want is a large, black series Princess Leia figure.

Another favorite of mine is Nightmare Before Christmas. With Christmas coming, it is popping up in all the stores. The things I wouldn’t mind getting are a six-inch toy of Jack Skellington and a five-inch figure of the bad guy Oogey Boogey.

They also have a Nightmare Before Christmas Trivial Pursuit Game. Board games are always a good idea.

There is a game this year called “Pie Face” but if you buy this for kids get ready to get whip creamed!

I would also like Pictopia. This is a game where you look at Disney characters really, really close up and you have to try and guess which character it is.

There are also a lot newer versions of older favorite games such as Operation and Monopoly. I also like a bunch of other random stuff. Me and my dad love to look at Garbage Pail Kids. They are sort of gross but fun also. I like them even though they are from the 80s because they are something my parents remember and they are still fun! Another thing from the 80s I like to collect are Strawberry Shortcake dolls.

I also have a lot of suggestions for smaller gifts.

I love to go to Handmade in New Paltz where they have lots of fun stuff to look at and play with. They have boxes to hold wishes and small blown-glass animals and even a yeti you grow yourself.

My other favorite stores are Tinker Toys Too and Sparkle in Woodstock. Tinker Toys Too has Sonny Angels which are little figurine baby angels that wear different hats that look like animals, fruits or vegetables. Sparkle has all the Beanie Boos you can get your hands on. I collect pink Beanie Boos and would like the pink monkey Beanie Boo for Christmas. Sparkle has lots of sparkly hair stuff.

They also have a good selection of practical jokes and magic kits.

I hope I have helped you decide what to buy for a child my age. If not, all you really need to know is what their favorite movie and characters are because with those few words you can unlock the many toys, board games, and video games that go along with those.

Well, happy hunting and happy holidays!

WIKICOMMONS

What makes for a great season of holidays better than a kid getting what he or she wants? Eternal favorites now include the 30-year-old Garbage Pail Kids trading cards from Topps, 22-year old Jack Skellington and the entire Nightmare Before Christmas franchise courtesy of Tim Burton, plus everything and anything to do with Star Wars, which first began delighting kids of all ages in 1977.

3, 2015 6 | December Holiday Gift Guide

Books make lasting gifts Especially, our editor finds, if they’ve got local ties

By Paul Smart

Y

ou can tell what a book is before you see its cover. And you can usually tell what kind of book and cover you’re getting by from who’s giving it to you — especially in a still-literate and even literary area like ours.

While a great many books that get passed around this time of year (many as re-gifts; who can tell?) are as predictable as the season. Where last year, folks were handing out copies of The Goldfinch and George Packer’s The Unwinding the way previous years saw homes filling up with first memoirs by Bob Dylan, Keith Richards and Patti Smith, there are bound to be big books showing up everywhere this holiday season. Think Te-Nehisi Coates’ powerful National Book Award winner Between the World and Me, Smith’s latest tale from her life, M Street, Adam Johnson’s big new collection of short stories (which also won the Pulitzer), and photographer Sally Mann’s memoir.

Our family, like many we know, prefers to give locally originated books, especially when we’ve come to know the author. And believe us, there’s a pile to choose from.

Looking over some that have come in for review this past year, we find thrillers and more complicated personal narrative novels, occasionally in that heroic mode of writing where the very struggle to get through a piece is the point of its arduous writing. We also find topical histories, singular books of poetry and anthologies, astute self-help books and more esoteric offerings ranging from cookbook memoirs to new theories regarding everything from stone walls in our forests to the way physics works.

The best local works can usually be picked up at local bookstores like Golden Notebook in Woodstock, Inquiring Mind in Saugerties, Oblong in Millerton and Rhinebeck, Barner Books and Inquiring Minds in New Paltz, Spotty Dog in Hudson, and Magpie in Catskill. Ask what’s in and you’ll usually be led to a whole section, often with reviews, and possibly learn about an upcoming reading.

One can also try some of the great local presses in the area, who publish local authors as well as writers from elsewhere. And yes, these are often worldclass entities, such as McPherson & Company in Kingston, which won a National Book Award for fiction a few years back and this year published the fabulous collection Every Father’s Daughter: 24 Women Writers Remember Their Writers, as well as The Arimaspia, a dense “mash-up of ancient and modern times” by the late Thomas McEvilley.

Station Hill Press, located near Bard, came out in recent weeks with an anthology of experimental poetry being written in the Hudson Valley, In/ Filtration, edited by Ann Gorrick and Sam Truitt.

The volume has as many treasures as challenges and maddening elements. Station Hill also came out with a novel that mixes a bit of thriller and loads of attitude from the fashion scene that shifts around the globe, Tequila Mockingbird by the longstanding arts writer Carter Radcliffe.

Monkfish Publishing, based in Rhinebeck, specializes in “seeker” books, and includes the new How Do You Pray by Celeste Yacaboni, as well as such new standards as Elizabeth Cunningham’s Maeve series of ecclesiastical women’s novels.

Mayapple Press, based in Woodstock, publishes poetry and prose, with an emphasis on women writers and the language and experiences of middle America, including such striking works this past year as Sara Kay Rupnik’s touching tales of women on the edge, Women Longing To Fly, and Sarah Carson’s collection of prose poems about coming of age in post-industrial Detroit, Buick City. On the purely poetry side, we were impressed with Jeannine Hall Gailey’s The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, a play on the lyricism hidden inside science, a truly modern meme.

True stalwarts of the local publishing scene are

Purple Mountain Press of Fleischmanns, now in its 41st year, and Black Dome Press, started in Greene County but now based closer to Albany.

The former publishes histories of the Adirondacks and Champlain Valley as well as such new books as The Cry That Rang From Brussels To New Amsterdam: The Walloons And Flemings Make Their Way To America, by Alfred H. Marks and Francis Devos, its fourth volume of Michael Kudish’s history of railroads in the Catskills, and longtime local columnist Bill Birns’ A Catskill Catalog. Black Dome recently came out with two works focused on early Kingston painter Jervis McEntree, a collection of early photos of Windham and environs, andthe well-researched and harrowing An Unforgiving Land: Hardscrabble Life in the Trapps, a Vanished Shawangunk Mountain Hamlet by Robi Josephson & Bob Larsen. Both publishers also have significant back catalogs that are a treasure trove for anyone with an interest in local history.

Various other great works came out of even small-

Of Kindness: Learning From How Dogs Learned (W.W. Norton & Company) spins much out of a revival of B.F. Skinner’s work, and adds her own life lessons from dog ownership and training.

Clark Strand of Woodstock, meanwhile, hit a host of chords with his latest from Spiegel & Grau, Waking Up To The Dark: Ancient Wisdom for a Sleepless Age, which is about what’s gained from a different approach to night, light and quiet.

For pure fun, we found little better this past year than Woodstock artist Gay Leonhardt’s marvelous reproduction and presentation of her mother’s co-written little gem, Shaking Up Prohibition In New Orleans: Authentic Vintage Cocktails from A to Z. New York City caterer (and Ulster Publishing contributor) Rossi’s memoir with recipes, The Raging Skillet, provides a truly rollicking look at the way teen cooking experiments while high can influence a career and entire worlds of Manhattanites.

Speaking of Ulster contributors, we must also give nods to Chris Rowley’s rollicking The Shared

The Hudson Valley’s local publishing houses include Kingston’s McPherson & Company, whose great new collection Every Father’s Daughter is a must-have for the women on one’s holiday gift list (as well as many fathers). Also check out Bushwack Books of Woodstock, whose latest poetry collection

by Will Nixon opens up a brand-new genre of hyper-local versification. er presses, such as Catskill’s rising Publication Studio, which though it usually puts out artist books also came out with artist Matt Bua’s wildly fun and inventive Talking Walls: Casting Out The Post-Contact Stone-Wall-Building Myth, a wild theory given full arts-project concentration. Bill Braine’s Hudson Heartland kicked off what it hopes to be a series of localized mysteries with the real estate/fracking thriller Bone Hollow, a grand evocation of place, new hipster residents and old-style chills.

On a similar level, there were also such self-published works as Donald Gunn Ross III’s epic seafaring novel, The Era of the Clipper Ships, a well-researched mess, and Stephen Policoff ’s fantasy exploration of fatherhood and the move upstate, Come Away.

Skyhorse Publishing, run by longtime part-Woodstocker Nick Lyons, has a sturdy new CIA thriller out from Catskill Mountains resident Kevin Hurley that makes up for long-windedness with a good eye for local settings and believable characters.

From larger presses, some of the region’s writers moved their careers forward in major ways this year that should be remembered this time of gift-giving.

Former WAMC reporter and current SUNY New Paltz associate professor of journalism Lisa A. Phillips put out Unrequited: Women and Romantic Obsession to much acclaim for Harper Collins, using her own experiences as a former unrequited lover and now a well-married mom as an emotionally-wrenching foundation for a series of in-depth interviews with other women that reaches deep into the heart of what haunts women when obsessed with love, plus the elements of romance, lust and all things l’amour that can if untended counter the altruism of partnership.

Melissa Holbrook Pierson’s The Secret History

Origins of Football, Rugby and Soccer (Rowman & Littlefield), as well as Andrew Amelinckx’s super-stylish Gilded Age of Murder & Mayhem in the Berkshires (The History Press), which the veteran but hip crime reporter is now expanding into the Hudson Valley and hopefully the Catskills.

Talk about a grand mix of heightened research and novelistic scene-setting.

The same comes through in Joscelyn Godwin’s fascinating Upstate Cauldron: Eccentric Spiritual Movements In Early New York State, which pulls out great scary tales in her accountings for what once had much of the region labeled the “burntover districts” for the frequency of their revival rages. Strange religious upheavals such as this autumn’s exorcisms outside Utica persist, as do a certain presidential candidate’s predilection for what had once been called Millerism. The images and captions in the increasingly outstanding Images of America series (Google them) now include dozens of local townships and villages, small cities and hamlets among their over 8000 titles published to date.

Rebecca Wolff of Hudson, whose first novel The Beginners created a goodly splash a few years back, has just released her fine new collection of poetry, One Morning, from the estimable Wave Books, quickly being seen as something of a game changer in the field.

Finally, a true monument created right in Kingston, Luc Sante’s new The Other Paris, seems to be gaining traction as a means of moving us all beyond the fear caused by last month’s tragedies. It reminds us not only of Paris’ complex and somewhat sordid past, but also the need we must all keep alive for full reckonings of all who make up civilization.

We have a very active books scene.

December 3, 2015 Holiday Gift Guide

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3, 2015 8 | December Holiday Gift Guide

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December 3, 2015 Holiday Gift Guide

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3, 2015 10 | December Holiday Gift Guide

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December 3, 2015 Holiday Gift Guide

| 11

Gifts for the teen It may be better to simply know what not to try

By Cally Mansfield

P

eople don’t know how to buy presents for teens. May first thought on hearing this truism was, “C’mon, you should know!” Then I realized that we teenagers are some of the hardest-toread creatures. Our emotions aren’t actually stable to begin with. We might love something one moment, and hate it the next.

Sorry. I could easily see how many factors connected to holidays are stressful.

Though everyone gets the Christmas jitters in anticipation of presents, it’s different for little kids than it is for teens. Adolescents still like holiday food and presents. But, these days I don’t care so much about the number of presents I get. I don’t want that Perry Cuomo album that haunts me in my dreams. I don’t expect the smell of hot chocolate. (Scratch that: hot chocolate is still okay by me.)

Being a teenager is about losing excitement. I used to get be overjoyed months in advance, and the feeling would last to the very day. Once, I woke up at three o’clock in the morning and watched Road Runner until everyone got up around six hours later. I probably looked like that sleep-deprived creepy little girl in Poltergeist who says, “They’re coming.”

Nowadays what I get pumped about is sleeping, and being with my friends. Therefore this Christmas I would appreciate a duvet, new sheets, and blackout curtains — real ones, the Alaskan kind.

I would also like to have a holiday party with my friends — with egg nog.

I want to caution you that I can’t really speak for all teens. I’m not even sure how many of my friends like egg nog. I’m just one 15-year-old living in Phoenicia.

To be honest, I don’t know what to get teens.

What I can tell you is what not to get teens for Christmas: Magic Tree House boxset. Great reading. I enjoyed the size 30 font and meeting dinosaurs when I was eight.

Gift certificate to Justice: I never liked clothes from this store. Way too much neon — everything looks like a fishing lure.

Stock in the turnip industry. T-shirts reading “Turn up for turnips!”

Turnips in general. I don’t hate turnips. They are just an underachieving root vegetable. Trader Joe’s makes them and other veggies look like they were handpicked by mermaids and filtered through unicorn rocks.

Ankle socks that fall down as soon as shoes are put on are the bane of my existence. Small socks are for those looking to end just as Achilles did.

A book on how to move out of the house successfully. I keep expecting my copy is coming from

N E P

O

WIKICOMMONS

Adolescence is all about lightning moods and learning to deal with them. It’s largely the same the whole world over, including where this image was taken at a winter camp in Armenia. Always remember: teens aren’t kids, even though they’re also not quite adults yet. The need special treatment when it comes to gifts. Let them choose their own presents!

Amazon any day, sent to me by my kind parents.

Kittens that don’t love you. I got one of these once. My cat and I are still working on a divorce.

We will be handling the split as adults.

Tickets to Disney on Ice. LL Bean catalog. Or anything from LL Bean, for that matter.

Chico’s gift certificate. That cheetah print top with the strategically placed ruffles would turn some heads in math class.

Donald Trump’s autobiography(s).

Any romance novels at CVS. One given to me by my friend Alex was called Stormy Persuasion. I’m not sure what it’s about, and I don’t want to know.

Puzzles. No. Stop.

Pants that are too small.

A reading of A Christmas Carol with character voices. Get out of my room, mom.

An I.O.U. for quality time with your mother or father. Parents: know that It’s not you, it’s us.

A TV that has only The Disney Channel and Fox News.

A piranha is all fun and games until someone’s finger gets chopped off.

Wool sweaters. They look so comfy, feel so itchy.

3D glasses for books. I don’t know if you have ever seen one of those, but it’s just slightly more interesting than watching paint drying.

Dead rats. I just wanted to clarify that in no circumstance will this ever be a good gift. I don’t care if you are doing a rendition of Ben.

Every season of Dora the Explorer ever. Vamanos chicas y chicos!

Dirty articles of clothing are not that bad as a gift. I have so many already.

A re-gift from another teen.

Cassette tapes. Vinyl can make a comeback, but these cannot.

An umbrella with holes in it.

Coal. Come to think of it, coal is a walk in the park.

What to get teens Money. I personally absolutely love getting money. It’s the most personal of gifts. You really know me. Being broke is one thing all teenagers have in common.

Gift certificates are a great way to secure a place in a teen’s heart.

A month-long gift certificate of acceptance. We are who we are. This is not a phase.

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3, 2015 12 | December Holiday Gift Guide

Holiday gadget guide Soon, our luggage will be traveling by itself

By Matthew D’Onofrio

W

ith the holiday season approaching, kids around the world will soon be unwrapping gift boxes filled with lightsabers, Skylanders and the walking, talking robot known as Meccano Meccanoid G15. While the children are off playing with their new Hello Barbies and building FlexTracks battlefields, the adults deserve some cool gadgets to play with, too.

When you hear the word “hoverboard,” the first image that immediately comes to mind is Marty McFly riding one to escape from the Griffs gang in Back to the Future Part II, a movie you loved and watched when you were young. McFly rode that hoverboard in the year 2015. With 2015 now here, you can ride one too.

Released to the world in October ber 2014, a year before McFly’s first ride, the he Hendo 1.0 Hoverboard is like a Segway ay PT, where you face forward, lean, and travel in the direction you choose, se, just without the handlebars. Howwever, if you truly want to be like McFly, the Hendo 2.0, released this October, is a hoverboard that rides like a skateboard.

If you are skeptical, the great Tony Hawk has tested the product and loves it. If you are scared d of being too old to ride a hoverboard, know that Tony Hawk is 47 years old. And if you are not convinced since Hawk has been skating his entire life, Jamie Foxx has ridden one, too. He is also 47.

You can have your very own Hendo ndo Hoverboard for $10,000.

Perhaps a hoverboard is not your ur style. You prefer to have fun in the comfort of your own home. h Ever heard of virtual reality? The Samsung Gear VR, powered by Oculus, is a headset with the ability to take you anywhere you wish. Well, not anywhere, but you can play games, watch movies and try out the array of incredible applications Oculus VR has to offer.

What kind of applications?

Maybe you are in the mood to pilot a starship and travel through space shooting down evil aliens. Or you finished yet another episode of The Walking Dead and are suddenly itching to massacre hordes of zombies. Perhaps it is no longer hunting season and you miss the great outdoors and the joy of killing wild deer and mounting their magnificent antlered heads over your fireplace.

Or you would rather peacefully walk around and explore a magnificent new world of beautiful colors and otherworldly creatures. Or you are quite the fisherman and all day long you would like to just sit back and reel in those keepers. All of that is

WIKICOMMONS

A woman tries out the latest Samsung VR Headset at the 2015 SXSW fest in Austin, Texas last spring. Not only do the new gadgets get premiered everywhere these days, but they also disappear as often as they emerge. Getting Google Glass for anyone this holiday season?

possible with i h the h Samsung S Gear VR. The device is only compatible with Samsung phones though, so if you have the Galaxy Note5, S6 edge+, S6 or S6 edge, you are all set. Simply launch the app from your smartphone and suddenly you are in the land of Ooo with Finn and Jake or rolling around in a gyrosphere while the Indominusrex chases you in Jurassic World.

If virtual reality interests you, the Samsung Gear VR can be yours for $99.

If you already explore actual reality enough via traveling, then perhaps you need an upgrade for that worn-out luggage you are carrying around the world. The Bluesmart Smart Carry-On Luggage is not your typical luggage but your “personal travel assistant,” according to Bluesmart.

This gadget has built-in GPS so you will never lose your luggage, a “smart scale” to determine your luggage’s weight, a battery to charge your phone via USB up to six times when fully charged,

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and a digital lock. All this technology accessible through Bluesmart’s mois acce bile ap app, which also allows you to keep of your travel information and track o other handy tools for your travel needs. ha This high-tech hig luggage is available for for $399. If purchased, it will be in pre-order fo your h hands d this hi December.

Are you not an avid flier though but you still enjoy flight? How about a drone then?

You might have heard about drones when Amazon introduced Prime Air, a futuristic delivery system where unmanned aerial vehicles, which are drones, do the delivering rather than people in trucks. Besides delivering packages and military use, drones are also widely used for personal tasks, mainly capturing photos and videos at heights and locations a human cannot reach.

The Phantom 3 by DJI is just one of many new drones making a buzz on the gadget market today. Via remote control, you can fly the Phantom 3 as far as a kilometer away from you to take 2.7K HD video and 12 megapixel photos. It operates on a three-axis gimbal to prevent shaky shots, has a 25-minute charge, and the ability to follow you around and fly back to you if lost with its GPS technology.

Photographers, filmmakers and adventurers alike would love this gadget and can pick one up for $699.

While you are out there climbing mountains, delving into caves, and wandering around enormous forests, you might find the InReach Explorer by DeLorme quite practical also. For $349, you could have the world’s first satellite communicator with built-in navigation. With this gadget you can create waypoints to prevent getting lost and finding your way back easier. The InReach Explorer also allows you to send and receive text messages when cell service is not in sight. You can also send out an SOS in case your journey becomes suddenly dangerous.

Whether you are a pathfinder, a photographer, a traveler, a gamer or Marty McFly, there is a new gadget out there for you this holiday season. Pick up the gadget that suits you best. Revel in your new toy. It is way better than the toys in those presents the kids are about to open.

December 3, 2015 Holiday Gift Guide

| 13

Pop culture!

Remember 2015 with some of the year’s best

By Jack Warren

I

f you haven’t noticed the drop in temperature, the appearance of festive decorations in every storefront window, and the pounding of the little drummer boy’s drum in the distance, allow me to be the first to tell you: the holiday shopping season is coming.

As movies, music, and TV shows are released by the boatload, it can be difficult discerning where to begin if you’re looking to buy a friend or a loved one (or yourself, you deserve it) a piece of pop culture. Here’s a list to get you started:

Movies Inside Out is a return to form for the Disney-Pixar powerhouse. Although Monsters University and Brave were by no means bad films, they didn’t provide the wonder expected of the studio behind Toy Story, WALL-E, and The Incredibles. (And, admittedly, Cars 2.)

Inside Out, starring Amy Poehler and Phyllis Smith, isn’t just a good kids’ film, it’s a complexly crafted parable about overcoming depression and growing up. It’s also chock full of breathtaking visuals, zany adventures, and goofy sidekicks, so your six-year-old will love it as much as your psychoanalyst, and almost as much as you. Inside Out is available on DVD, Blu-Ray, and online.

Love and Mercy. When you run out of down blankets and hot chocolate, the ebullient music of The Beach Boys is perfectly suited for the winter chill. Love and Mercy explores the lengths band leader Brian Wilson, played by Paul Dano and John Cusack, undertook to achieve that sound, and the immense toll it took on him. Regardless of if you already know the story of The Beach Boys, Love and Mercy triumphs as a gripping biopic full of the joys and hardships of making art. Perfect for fans of film and music alike, Love and Mercy is available on Blu-Ray, DVD, and online.

Mad Max: Fury Road. There’s no snow, no Santa Claus, and no spirit of giving, but maybe that’s what makes Mad Max: Fury Road perfect for the holiday season. This anarchic joyride, starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, juggles being both an incendiary action flick brimming with car chases and fight scenes, and a feminist art film critiquing the capitalist patriarchy and championing badass lady heroes. It’s a favorite among fans of both genres, and is bound to offer viewers a refreshing break from the blood-thirsty rat race of holiday shopping. Fury Road is available on Blu-Ray, DVD, and online, as well as in a five-disc Mad Max anthology featuring the film’s three predecessors.

Music Frank Sinatra: A Voice on Air. Sinatra’s warm and cozy crooning is synonymous with holiday cheer, and were he alive today he’d be celebrating his 100th Christmas. If you want to celebrate the centennial of the original American musical icon, pick up Frank Sinatra: A Voice on Air, a four-CD box set of over 95 radio broadcasts and rehearsals recorded over two decades, along with a lavish 60-page booklet of track listings, historic photographs, and liner notes. With tracks from 1935 to 1955, music fans will be able to hear live the unfolding career of America’s first teen idol, as well as the genesis and evolution of pre-rock pop music itself.

The Wireless — Punch Brothers. A quintet comprised of fluttering mandolin, pirouetting bass, frolicking banjo, lamenting fiddle and swaying guitar, the Punch Brothers blend bluegrass, pop, classical and a sort of existential hymn. Their latest EP, The Wireless, produced by T Bone Burnett, builds off their previous stylings while expanding their vast repertoire with songs like “Sleek White Baby,” a creepy vaudevillian romp, and “Clementine,” an Elliot Smith cover. It’s an excellent sample of the band’s diverse oeuvre, available on CD and online.

WIKICOMMONS

It seems anyone who’s seen Game Of Thrones on HBO can’t get enough of it, and are on the edge of their seats right now wondering whether Snow’s alive and Dany’ll control the actual throne.

Meanwhile, new generations get new collections from holiday crooner par excellence Frank Sinatra, and the Doctor Who franchise just keeps zooming ahead 824 episodes on from its 1963 start.

Hamilton Original Cast Recording. Hamilton, the brainchild of playwright, composer, and star Lin-Manuel Miranda, brings together hip-hop, Broadway, and the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. It sounds more like a Key & Peele sketch than a musical as revolutionary as the time it depicts, but Hamilton has earned millions in ticket sales, universal acclaim from critics, and an endorsement from Barack Obama. Available on CD and online, the original cast recording reached #12 on the Billboard charts, making it the highest performing musical since 1963’s Camelot.

If you’re feeling especially giving and you’ve got a few extra hundred dollars, you can supplement this gift with tickets to Hamilton’s Broadway run.

You ought to be quick about it, though, because all but a few seats are booked for the next months.

If I Can Dream — Elvis Presley. Presley exists as two unique figures of pop culture. To many, he’s the galvanizing rebel who gyrated his hips on national television and brought rock ’n’ roll to the mainstream. But as popular music has gotten louder, lewder, and more abrasive, Elvis’ image has become less sensual iconoclast and more nostalgic crooner, the pompadoured representative of a more romantic age. If I Can Dream, released on October 30, takes full advantage of Elvis’ pop culture makeover, augmenting his songs with the lush performances of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Rather than muting the strength of his powerful music, these new arrangements of songs like “Love Me Tender” “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “In the Ghetto” offer a unique classical grandeur and empha-

size the enormity of Elvis’ vocal talent. After its release on CD, vinyl and online, If I Can Dream shot to the top of the UK, Australia and Ireland charts, proving that, regardless of which Elvis you prefer, the reign of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll continues to this day.

TV Game of Thrones: Steelbook Collectors’ Sets.

Speaking of royalty, it is perhaps a little late to recommend the riveting HBO series Game of Thrones. The show has been on air since 2011, and has long established itself as the biggest swordsand-sorcery tale this side of Tolkien. However, seasons one and two were just released as two BluRay collector’s sets called “Steelbooks,” featuring cast commentaries, surround sound, and a potpourri of special features. These gifts are perfect for die-hard fans and new viewers alike, as long as they aren’t squeamish at the sight of blood or sex.

Doctor Who: Christmas Specials Giftset. Doctor Who, a British science-fiction drama about a time-traveling alien saving mankind from destruction, may not immediately seem like a candidate for a Christmas special. Yet the jolly, surreal idealism of a universe in which spaceships are bigger on the inside, all doors can be opened with sonic screwdrivers, and good always triumphs over evil fits the seasonal cheer like a glove. This gift set features four DVDs (Blu-Ray and otherwise both available) containing eleven Christmas specials as well as a complimentary sonic-screwdriver replica. It’s perfect for sharing the bizarre and wonderful spirit of the holidays.

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3, 2015 14 | December Holiday Gift Guide

For your favorite food fan Good knives, cookware & ingredients are always welcome

By Jennifer Brizzi

Y

ou’re lucky if you have a foodie or two on your holiday shopping list. Those who find cooking and/or eating to be among the finer things in life are the most fun to shop for, I think. And there is such a wide range of prices, from the loftiest big Le Creuset cast-iron Dutch oven to the simply perfect pancake turner as a stocking stuffer. From kitchen gadgets to local specialties to culinary experiences to the latest cookbooks, there’s lots to choose from and plenty of places to find it all, from online to local shops.

It helps to know what kind of cook or eater your giftee is. Whether the person lives to cook or doesn’t cook at all or is somewhere in between, and whether they are a beginner or have years of cooking experience may make a difference. Although certain gifts are perfectly appropriate for any of these categories, knowing your foodie helps make your choice easier.

Some of my favorite kitchen gadgets and cookware — for aspiring and seasoned cooks alike — are those things you can never have too many of, like good cutting boards, kitchen knives and saucepans. Warren Kitchen and Cutlery on Route 9 in Rhinebeck (just north of the 9/9G crossroad) has a stupendous selection of all three, along with plenty of expert advice on selection. Paring knives are relatively expensive and ever useful; one that folds or has a sheath is great for the world traveler on your list. Warren’s also has a beautiful assortment of cookware, including an extensive line of gorgeous Le Creuset, my favorite enameled castiron and something I’m always thrilled to get as a gift.

At the nearby Bluecashew Kitchen Pharmacy in Rhinebeck village, Staub’s French-made cast-iron vertical chicken roaster is a find, cooking your giftee’s birds evenly and with a perfect crispy skin.

Also, the award-winning Rosle collapsible colander/steamer that they carry saves space and serves double duty.

A couple of my favorite and much-used items that make great gifts include mandolin slicers and immersion blenders, both of which take up little storage space. I love Laguiole. Online you can

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You can’t do better gifting a food enthusiast better cookware, and you can get full choice at the popular Warren’s in Rhinebeck, where there are also fine local ingredients to try out as well as gift certificates to various local restaurants and shops. find a four-piece wine-and-cheese set or a folding knife with exotic wooden handle for little money.

Although bread machines, ice-cream makers and huge juicers are thoughtful presents, don’t give them to those with scarce counter space.

Kits are appreciated by cooks who might enjoy the guidance in making or growing their own gourmet mushrooms, microgreens, mozzarella cheese, craft beer (try Half Time or Adams Fairacre Farms) or those who’d like to play around with molecular gastronomy. Williams-Sonoma offers a kit with everything you need to cure and smoke your own house-made bacon.

For those who’d rather eat (or sip) than cook, there are many, many options for holiday treats.

Although uncommongoods.com offers an intriguing honey flight, some of my most-loved, go-to websites for foodie presents include penzeys.com (for every spice a cook can use, with great prices

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E

xcellent local edibles and drinkables that are products of the Hudson Valley are not hard to find and well worth the search.

Mixologists and cooks alike will enjoy The Hudson Standard shrubs and bitters carried by Bluecashew. Shrubs are syrups made from fruit, vinegar and sweetener, and The Hudson Standard’s come in several flavors, including Peach Lavender and Pear Honey Ginger. Their bitters assortment includes Love-Struck, inspired by an ancient Roman aphrodisiac, with hyssop, thyme, peppercorn and ginger. Bluecashew also has bitters from Lady Jayne’s Alchemy, Taconic Distillery Bourbon Maple Syrup, and Cara-Sel Salted Caramel.

Other local specialties I recommend include Jacüterie’s high-quality artisan bacon and cured and fresh sausages, available at the farm in Herondale on Saturdays and various winter farmers markets like the ones in Rhinebeck (rhinebeckfarmersmarket.com). And check out the award-winning and scrumptious Sprout Creek Farm line of cheeses, available online at sproutcreekfarm.org/cheese and various local outlets.

For a big assortment of local products, swing by the Taste NY Market at the Todd Hill rest area on the Taconic Parkway (in Lagrangeville, one mile south of Route 55).

These days the Hudson Valley is getting a reputation for its many quality distilleries. Although there are too many to list in this space, a nice bottle from Harvest Spirits (Valatie), Dennings Point Distillery (Beacon) or Hudson Valley Distillers (Clermont) would surely be appreciated by the connoisseur of fine liquors on your list.

Gift certificates for food experiences make great gifts, too, like a Culinary Institute of America campus tour (call 451-1588) or a cooking class (enthusiasts.ciachef.edu/). Don’t miss the campus bookstore for great browsing and culinary-focused gift-buying, too. Gift certificates for other local culinary tours can be found at www.hudson-

December 3, 2015 Holiday Gift Guide

| 15

valleyfoodtours.com.

C

ookbooks are always great gifts for the foodie (as an avid collector, I am particularly fond of this category). If the people on your list have predilections for certain foods and like to cook or do projects, give them a kit and/or book for that particular thing or cuisine that they adore. And keep their skill level in mind when choosing books; tomes on basic cooking (such as my favorite The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham from Knopf ) may be better suited for someone who loves to eat but is starting to learn to cook rather than the chef or cook with decades of cooking under their belt (and no diet books, please, even if you think the recipient might be interested or needs one).

On my side of the river, Oblong Books in Rhinebeck has a big section of the latest cookbooks as well as a very impressive selection of volumes of food writing in many categories. And they will happily order anything you don’t see on the shelves.

Some newly released cookbooks that would make great gifts include My Pantry: Homemade Ingredients That Make Simple Meals Your Own from Alice Waters (who recently visited Bluecashew). The famous founder of Chez Panisse in California offers methods for pantry staples like stocks, fresh cheeses, vinegars, preserves, spice mixtures and more. Or check out TV chef/restaurateur Lidia Bastianich’s latest effort (with Tanya Bastianich Manuali), offering both Italian and Italian-American favorites (400 of them) in Lidia’s Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine: Everything You Need to Know to Be a Great Italian Cook (Knopf ).

Food science is fun, and Serious Eats’ J. Kenji López-Alt is well-qualified to introduce it to us. In his new book The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science (W. W. Norton & Company), he gets you up close and personal with ingredients and methods (with 1000 photos).

Some of my favorite cuisines are represented with exciting new releases in the cookbook world.

Check out Besh Big Easy: 101 Home Cooked New Orleans Recipes, by John Besh (Andrews McMeel) with emphasis on the simple and classic rather than the cheffy, or Tacos: Recipes and Provocations by Alex Stupak and Jordana Rothman (Clarkson Potter). Stupak, the veteran of Alinea and WD-50 who now owns three NYC eateries, offers traditional taco fillings and some more exotic possibilities like shredded pastrami, or smoked salmon, or sea urchin with guacamole. And then one of my fave cookbook authors, Madhur Jaffrey, brings us Vegetarian India: A Journey Through the Best of Indian Home Cooking (Knopf).

Early December brings a comprehensive and fascinating new encyclopedia of New York City food — a universe in itself — with Savoring Gotham, edited by Andrew F. Smith (Oxford University Press). And if you think your favorite foodie would rather look at gorgeous food photos than cook, check out the Edibles calendar, by Robert Kaufman, now in its 37th edition. Other than photos of my kids, it’s my favorite way to adorn the wall next to my desk, keep track of my appointments, and get monthly cooking inspiration. It is available from Amazon or silvervisions.com.

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Clothes for the holidays If ever there was an example of the relatives’ best (& worst) intentions

By Babs Mansfield

E

ach year my stepmother gets me a new sweater, shirt or jacket from one of those national clothing chains that tailor to women of a certain age. She nearly always buys something I like.

And she always buys it in a medium.

Here’s the thing: I am clearly not a medium.

Now, if you’re thinking maybe your stepmother is simply not good at judging sizes, let me explain.

This is a custom of sorts where I come from—a very Southern behavior I call the Puff-Up. The Puff-Up is not to be confused with deflating, multi-layered falsities like the Puff ‘n’Dump, “Girl, you’re so free and easy … I wish I could leave the house not caring what I looked like.” The Puff-Up is a little white lie — a kindness of sorts.

My stepmother knows full well that I don’t wear a medium. She buys mediums for me for two reasons: to provide an opportunity for me to exchange the item for something I might like better, and to make me feel good that she has, even if by some infinitely small chance, mistaken me for a medium. Last Christmas I pulled a sweater out of its wrapping, pleased by the Puff-Up and sure that it would be an easy retail chain return.

Weeks later after dragging the tree outside and chopping it up for kindling, the post-holiday plan for my sweater return ran into a glitch. It wasn’t that the return policies changed, but rather nearby Kingston was hit with a streak of affordable fashion flight. I realized that Chicos, Talbots, and even JC Penny had closed. Presumably, the buyers of Kingston weren’t buying such mall ware—perhaps opting for mail order jeans and flannels instead.

Or, maybe it is that the buyers of Ulster County are unique. We opt to spend a little more for the unique clothing that can be found at locally-owned Digg in Saugerties, or Woodstock Design or Birchtree in Woodstock. Another market challenge to the chain stores in our area could be our wealth of second hand shops. Between Melánge or Formerly Yours in Phoenicia, Castaways or the smartly curated second hand line at Sew in Woodstock, and the occasional Green Eileen or other sale at Fiberflame (located between Saugerties and Woodstock), who needs J. Jill?

However smug and personally satisfied I feel about the unique clothing options in our area, my attitude doesn’t address the challenge to receiving the annual Puff-Up from my stepmother. Last

WIKICOMMONS

How often have you gotten a sweater that seems better fit onto a pet? Now that the days of easy chain store returns are passing, at least here in our Hudson Valley, we may have to look back to earlier days of manual clothes adjustments as the latest alternative to re-gifting. year’s sweater is still in its Chicos box—tags and all. It is just too much for me to drive an hour south or an hour north to shop in the suburban areas that support that store. Is there a way to make this gift a gift still?

There is a small industry of online resellers that have made virtual yard sales a piece of cake. Ebay has an app called Valet. You take a few pictures, write up the basic information about each piece you want to unload, and they approximate the value. Once that’s done, they send you a self-addressed envelope to mail the clothes and once they have sold, Ebay pays you. Unfortunately, their valuations are inevitably lower than you would have hoped. That said, that disappointment is easier to swallow than the snub I got at reseller thredUP. Here’s how they work: they send you a Clean Up Kit for free mailing of your second hand clothes.

Once your items have sold, they send you your proceeds, minus their commission and a donation they make to charity. I like the ease and idea of all Since

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that, except that thredUP picky, picky, picky. My un-hip Chicos apparel is not on their list of approved brands. That kind of neutralizes the whole Puff Up. What about re-gifting? There used to be shame re-gifting. However, after that last whopper of a recession it’s no longer forbidden, and completely fair game. There are rules though: 1) don’t re-gift within the same circle of friends, 2) if it’s been used, crushed, crumpled, creased, or otherwise molested—don’t even think about re-gifting, and 3) you can’t re-gift if enough time has gone by that the item is obviously dated. To wit: ditch that Frozen romper you mistakenly bought in too-large a size for your niece last year, even though it will fit her this year.

Some of you will have read this and thought, good grief—did your family ever consider gift cards?

That would make sense if we were a practical people. The fact that my 86-year-old stepmother maneuvers her frail frame into a car, drives to a store—maybe several stores—and picks clothes out especially for me counts for something. It means she has spent time thinking about my aesthetics and putting forward nurturing intentions—wrapping me in thoughtfulness.

On the flip side, teens are particularly difficult to buy clothes for. Their tastes shift faster than Mario Andretti. I’ve established that I will wear Chicos, which my daughter will tell you is the very reason I should stick with gift cards, specifically to Urban Outfitters or ModCloth. Occasionally I just can’t help a minor rebellion. I will buy her a shirt, or a pair jeans regardless of her head shaking, concerned face because practical cannot replace the triumphant feeling of actually scoring something my love likes. That’s the best Puff Up.

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Holiday Gift Guide 2015 DECEMBER 3, 2015 • ULSTER PUBLISHING • HUDSONVALLEYTIMES.COM

part 2

Seasonal traditions?

Religiosity and presents, New Year’s Eve after 50, Santa secrets, showing off the region during its darkest days, what to do with that in-between week and resolutions for an election year.

3, 2015 18 | December Holiday Gift Guide

WIKICOMMONS

Even if you can’t remember the accompanying words, there’s a sweet appropriateness to the lighting of Chanukah candles in increasing numbers over the holiday’s eight nights... especially if you’ve tried it in hotel rooms all over the globe. It brings the season back to its darkness, and something truly homey and comforting. Especially with a whole family and friends involved.

Bridging Christmas and Chanukah We all make our own holiday traditions in the end

By Dante Kanter

I

am sitting in the back of a cab heading to midtown down Fifth Avenue. Sleepless and jostled by the bumps in the street, I see giant lightup candy canes lining the street, a shining red Christmas tree over Radio City, massive metal jingle bells and holiday lights climbing up the sides of buildings. It feels like the city has been invaded by festive giants without my noticing it.

This time of year, the seasonal paraphernalia

slowly creeps into the department stores through the fall and then tumbles out onto the streets come November. We are now exposed to the full grandeur of the holidays.

My father was raised a Unitarian. He had an Eastern European Jewish father and an Italian mother. My mother spent her adolescence in Catholic school. Religion has never played a role in our holiday tradition. My parents are now both agnostic Buddhists, and I’ve never been pressured by my family to align myself with any faith, which so far in my life I haven’t.

Come the holiday season, I would light the Menorah on the first night of Chanukah and recite the Shehecheyanu. I would throw wishes onto the yule log at our friends’ solstice celebration, and

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I would have a Christmas dinner of Italian fish.

Raised without religion, I was surrounded by it.

Many families are headed by parents who come from two different backgrounds. Just asking around my school I discovered a bizarre array of traditions.

My English teacher was, like my father, raised by a Catholic and a Jew. His father, the Catholic, went on a spiritual retreat to India, and afterwards developed his own brand of Hindu Catholicism.

The family would sit in a room with a Christmas tree covered in prayer flags, spend half an hour on a Hindu prayer and meditate until their uncle, dressed as Santa Claus, knocked on the door and delivered their presents.

A friend of mine was told by her mother that Santa is a hallmark capitalist invention, and that the real St. Nicholas is a force that cannot be seen or heard, only felt. I order to properly communicate with him, she said, she had to write a letter and burn it in her front yard, so that the smoke would reach to the sky, where the real St. Nicholas lived.

Another friend, raised in a Jewish family which

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December 3, 2015 Holiday Gift Guide wanted their child to experience the magic of Christmas without indulging in Christian tradition, would put their presents underneath their art tree, which was an old dead apple tree they had decorated with troll dolls and miscellaneous trash.

Her father told her that her gifts were brought to her by a tiny man named Melvin the Elf. Some people I talked to described themselves as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Christmas-tree Jews,â&#x20AC;? ethnically Jewish but celebrating only Christmas. This interested me. You never see anything like this from the other side.

There are no Protestant kids who celebrate only Chanukah. The whole dynamic fascinated me.

Chanukah isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a major holiday in the Jewish faith. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been forced into becoming one through competition with other holidays. At its core, it is very closed and personal. Serious practicing Jews celebrate Chanukah in this way â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with direct family, solemnly, deliberately. There are presents, of course, but they arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t presented with the flash and color that comes with Christmas. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not unusual for strictly Jewish kids in this time of year to be jealous of the gentiles, who end up with all the commercials, Hess trucks and greeting cards.

Christmas takes up the majority of cultural space in America, I think, because it has largely separated itself from the religion it originated from, and as a result is accessible to all cultures.

Santa Claus, for example, is entirely a product of American folklore. He originates from the Catholic Saint Nicholas. While other countriesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Santas are connected to their Christian pasts (Sinterklaas, the Dutch Santa, dons a bishopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s robes and a shepherdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s staff ), our Santa Claus gets his power from something much older than the Christian faith: pure magic. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Taking the Christ out of Christmasâ&#x20AC;? has become a concern for many Christians in this country. Just this past month, there was a controversy over the removing of the words â&#x20AC;&#x153;Merry Christmasâ&#x20AC;? in the design of the seasonal Starbucks cup, so much so that a presidential candidate made a speech about it at a rally to the angry cheers of thousands. This same rage has been directed to the phrase â&#x20AC;&#x153;Happy Holidaysâ&#x20AC;? and the removal of religious imagery from holiday advertising campaigns. These protestors donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seem to understand thattaking the Christ out of Christmas only establishes Christianityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dominance.

Ours is undoubtedly a Christian nation in ways that run much deeper than religious imagery. The dominant culture is the invisible culture. This is demonstrated not only in religion, but also in race and gender. In many places in this country one is assumed Christian until proven otherwise. By taking the Christ out of Christmas, the Christ becomes assumed.

There are many holidays and traditions celebrated in this coming month, whether pagan, Christian, Jewish or Melvin the Elf. As the holidays descend upon us in this coming month with their giant statues, flashing lights, and garish commercials, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important we celebrate our differences instead of ignoring them. We should become more

conscious of the advantages some differences have over others. Above all, in the spirit of all of these holidays, we should be kind to each other.

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3, 2015 20 | December Holiday Gift Guide

Santa Claus on the roof, faeries on the lawn our mountain hamlets, have plenty of experiences of seeing faeries dancing on our lawns, among other things (and I’m looking at you, Woodstock). And just because we can’t explain everything we see, and are not always

By Harry Matthews believed we saw what we know we saw, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Like Tolkien wrote of the Hobbit’s wariness of men: “they t some point in a child’s possessed the art of disappearing swiftly and young life, usually before they silently when big folk came blundering by, to reach the age of nine or ten, the point of it seeming like magic.” And who’s some snarky older kid, maybe to say that the real Father Christmas couldn’t a big brother or a schoolyard do the same. bully, decides to blow the kid’s Now it may be only ten-year-old boys blowmind by debunking certain beliefs that many ing the story for the younger ones, but what children have held dear since holding someabout the rest of us, the supposed adults? Are thing dear was an option to them. Often this we so jaded, so busy being grown-up, that we is done with taunts and jeers that the kid still scoff and quickly slough off anything we can’t believes in these so-called “myths.” Whether explain, that doesn’t fit into our well-defined it’s over the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, lives? I know that for me, living in these or, as the coming holiday makes near and mountains is a continuously otherworlddear to some of us, Santa Claus. ly experience in which I see things I can’t To many a child’s impressionable young always explain, whether tricks of beautiful mind, it’s a hard and painful awakening to light off water, or the wind-rushed play of a one day find out that the world they thought ripened field of summer wheat. they’d known in their short years is suddenly Even Washington Irving described our no longer the wonderfully magical place they Catskills as being “faery mountains where thought it was. And what’s worse, at least in the blue tints of the upland melt away into my memory, was that it was the first betraythe fresh green of the nearer landscape.” And al that I truly felt; finding out that I’d been if you head out there, and happen to take a lied to by those I trusted most in the world, wee nip o’ the cider, be careful napping bemy parents. And though I remember thinkneath any old maple outside of Palenville, ing then that to grow up faster I’d better stop as you might just wake up surrounded by a buying all this “little-kid stuff,” I didn’t realbunch of ghostly bearded Dutchmen bowlize that in fact the exact opposite was true. ing ninepins in the hollow.

In all of our growing up, it’s not just mean WIKICOMMONS With few exceptions, every Christmas Eve kids doing the demystifying of what magic We could have commissioned this image but didn’t want to anger for most of my life my family has gathered might be left in a child’s mind. The utter its subject by claiming any favoritism. Suffice it to say that even around a crackling fire in the living room of commercialization of everything around if you don’t believe in myths, we all tend to honor them to keep my parents’ house to hear my father read “A us at this time of year, anything that might those that still believe in tow. And still believing.

Visit from Saint Nicholas,” the oft-repeated bring in a buck, has done a pretty darn good 1826 poem by Clement Moore. My father, tucked To quote a part of the 1897 editorial reply from job of it as well, with little thanks to all those parinto his over-stuffed wingback chair, surrounded New York Sun writer Francis Pharcellus Church ents that knuckle under in the face of a child’s by children, grandchildren, and a few sleepy cats, to the question “Is there a Santa Claus?”: “Not demands. Of course it’s easy for me to say this as dramatically pulls down the old, slightly battered I am, as far as I know, still childless. believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not becopy of the book, puts one finger to his lips to siI think most kids “in the know” might believe lieve in faeries! The most real things in the world lence the room, and begins ... “ ‘Twas the night bethat their parents are responsible for the majorare often those that neither children nor men can fore Christmas, when all through the house not a ity of their Christmas gifts. It’s not like Old Saint see. Did you ever see faeries dancing on the lawn? creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”

Nick and the elves are going to whip up a few Of course not, but that’s no proof that they aren’t He pauses at the end of each page, holding the million Camera Quadcopter drones, iPad Pros, or there. Nobody can imagine all the wonders there book up for all to catch a quick glimpse of the dewhatever else the kids are clamoring for this year. are unseen and unseeable in the world. There is a liciously intricate illustrations. Somewhere near veil covering the unseen world which not even the But what they don’t know is that every once in a the middle: “As leaves that before the wild hurriunited strength of all the strongest men that ever while there may be one gift (perhaps two, dependcane fly, when they meet with an obstacle, mount lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, ing on how kind, generous, and caring said child to the sky,” I’m half on the edge of my seat, atingle love, romance, can push aside that curtain and has been of late) that, when opened, makes both with the sweet familiarity of the lines. view and picture the supernal beauty and glory parents (or whoever) scratch their heads with By the end, “Ere he drove out of sight,” I’m filled, beyond.” wonder at where the mystery gift came from. Was content, happy with the fact that I’m not yet too Many of us, especially those living in some of it Santa? Is there really a Santa Claus? old for this, that I might never be, and that certain traditions, despite all forces of technology flying in their face, remain.

So, in the end, it’s up to each of us how much belief, how much faith we allow into our lives.

Though it might often seem the opposite, this world is not always the hard, loud place the media makes us believe. I’ve purposefully made the choice to believe in as many myths as I can, from Lake Champlain’s “Champy” to the Yeti, to lawn faeries, to Hobbits, and finally to Father Christmas. I don’t do this out of ignorance, naïveté or sentimentalism, but from a desire to not be bound by the demystifying and desensitizing nature of the often-blaring world around us.

In my estimation, the first step is to put down the gadgets (at least for a bit), retune our ears to the world around us, and try to be open for that next play of light in the woods, that next mildly Great local wines & gifts. unexplainable sound in the night. This Christmas And a great tasting room experience. season I’m going to let myself imagine that rustles in the chimney might not just be pesky squirrels, Thurs – Mon 11:30 – 5:30 while keeping a sharp ear out for any possible clatter of tiny hooves upon the roof. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll find that extra present beneath a tree, wherever that tree may be.

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December 3, 2015 Holiday Gift Guide

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Winter pursuits Everyone can find something herethis time of year... almost

By Andrew Amelinckx

S

pring, summer and fall in the Hudson Valley provide us with a bounty of things to see and do. But what about those blustery winter months around the holidays when you find your home overrun -- er, I mean blessed -- with family and other out-of-town guests? Don’t fret, there are still plenty of great activities and places to visit during the bleakest of seasons.

In line with my motto “Work smarter, not harder,” I did a little crowdsourcing through Facebook to find out what some of my friends from around the region would suggest.

My friend Mike, who loves winter sports, responded with “Hunter Mountain!”

My friend Kristi, who is a bibliophile, suggested Rodgers Book Barn, in Hillsdale. She may also be a donutophile (if that exists) since her second suggestion was Twin Peaks Coffee & Donuts in Tannersville (they have a donut-making machine so your order is made while you wait and have several wild flavors, like a Samoan that’s based on the famed Girl Scout cookie).

Francesca, a friend and bargain hunter, suggested the Coxsackie Antique Center. Other suggestions included the Circle A grocery in Palenville for lunch and the Peint o Gwrw Tafarn in Chatham.

Many of my friends used exclamation points in their responses so I think it’s safe to assume they really, really like these places.

Don’t worry, I’m not trying to make you pigeonhole your friends like I apparently have a tendency to do with mine. I’m sure they are as complex and fascinating as you are, but these broad categories will hopefully make it a little easier to figure out your plans. So read on for some great ideas to help make your friends’ and family’s visit to the Hudson Valley the best ever (and easy on you).

Snow way!

If your friends and family are the athletic outdoor sports-type, then your job is easy. We’re blessed with some great skiing here, including Hunter Mountain, Windham Mountain, Belleayre Mountain, and Catamount Ski Area.

Many of these places also have snow tubing for the younger folks and the young at heart.

If your guests aren’t into downhill skiing or snowboarding, no worries, because there are plenty of places where you can rent snowshoes or cross-country skis, including Mountain Trails Cross Country Ski Center, inTannersville, and the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz. You can rent fat-tired bicycles, which among other places are available at Overlook Mountain Bicycles in Woodstock. Do some riding in the snow.

Scenery scene

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Winter darkness, long drives and crowded crossroads. What’s the best to take friends and family to when they visit this time of year? Besides some great small town (and even rural-weird) light displays, think of skiing at Belleayre or other local mountains, or just a drive into our mountains’ deep wilderness.

While it’s a bit easier to sightsee in the warmer months, the views in the winter, without those pesky leaf-filled trees in the way, are truly stunning. North-South Lake is still accessible in the

winter and the views from where the Catskill Mountain House once stood are not to be missed.

To the south, Minnewaska State Park Preserve in Kerhonkson provides another great place for a

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Montgomery Place, in Annandale-on-Hudson, beautiful views of the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and has the added advantage (two birds, one stone) of having a mansion designed by the famous architect Alexander Jackson Davis for those guests into touring 19th-century homes. Olana, the Persian-style home and studio of Hudson River School painter Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), located up the road in Greenport, provides a superb panoramic view of the Mid-Hudson Valley. One can get a deeper understanding of the artist by seeing the area through his eyes and touring the extravagant place in which he created his mas-

terpieces.

Glad you came?

Got art and history buffs coming for a visit? Besides the aforementioned Olana, there is Cedar Grove, the Catskill residence of Thomas Cole. If contemporary art is your interest, visit the two great sculpture parks in the area, Art Omi, in Ghent, and Opus 40 in Saugerties. The valley also has homes of two U.S. presidents, the residence of Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park and Lindenwald, the home of the eighth president, Martin Van Buren, in Kinderhook. While Lindenwald isn’t open for tours during the winter, you can still visit the beautiful grounds and

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Given how much folks loved Ken Burns’ recent Roosevelt series on PBS, maybe a trip is warranted to all the FDR and Eleanor spots located at Valkill and Springwood in the Hyde Park area.

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tons of upscale antique shops, and the Coxsackie Antique Center, an airplane hangar-sized space where you can spend hours wandering the aisles. Don’t let the short days and wintery weather keep you indoors trying to entertain your guests with board games and B movies on Netflix. Get out there and show your family and friends why you choose to live in the beautiful and bountiful Hudson Valley.

Bargain hunters and antiques fanatics Among the myriad of shopping opportunities for those interested in antiques and collectables are Warren Street in Hudson, where there are

Winter From Olana, by the great Hudson River School painter Frederick Church, may be all one needs as a lure to visit the artist’s grand home outside of Hudson.

keepsie. The multitude of smaller history museums dotting the area include the Senate House in Kingston, where in 1777 the first state senate met, and in New Paltz an entire street in New Paltz of historic importance, where the Huguenots settled in 1678 after fleeing persecution in Europe.

Boozin’ and cruisin’ If you and your friends are into the craft booze scene, you could do your own mini-brewery tour (make sure to have a designated driver). If you’re used to American pilsners, go easy because the alcohol percentage is usually much higher with these local varieties. Some notable ones include Crossroads Brewery in Athens, the Chatham Brewery in Chatham, Keegan Ales, in Kingston, and Mill House Brewing in Poughkeepsie. Among the many wineries are the Chatham Winery in Ghent and Benmarl Winery in Marlboro, and as well as

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During the latter days of the Roman Empire, the darkest days of each year, when a new year replaces the old, was celebrated with Saturnalia, a time of role reversals and “great license,” as historians like to call unbridled fun. That can still be a goal for home celebrations.

New Year’s Eve on the Mountaintop It may not be Times Square or a Calends, but it need not be dull

By Elisabeth Henry

D

o you want to know what I like about New Year’s Eve? It’s ecumenical. Everybody does it. It’s democratic. Everybody does it their own way.

It’s fixed. It’s frankly what it is.

The date cannot be questioned, as

is the birth date of Jesus by the Holly Jolly Deniers. Nor does it roam, as does Easter, Passover, and Ramadan, crimping the style of the all those who rely on the save-the-date protocol.

Many Christian congregations have New Year’s Eve services. Some, especially Lutherans and Methodists and those in the African-American community, have a tradition known as Watch Night, in which the faithful congregate in services continuing past midnight, giving thanks for the blessings of the outgoing year and praying for divine favor during the upcoming year.

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In the English-speaking world, Watch Night can be traced back to John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who learned the custom from the Moravian Brethren who came to England in the 1730s. Moravian congregations still observe the Watch Night service on New Year’s Eve. I attended college near Moravian, a private college in Pennsylvania, where all the doors are painted red.

Watch Night took on special significance to African-Americans on New Year’s Eve 1862, as slaves anticipated the arrival of January 1, 1863, when Lincoln had announced he would sign the Emancipation Proclamation. I’ll bet that was some party.

What are you doing New Year’s Eve? Champagne and music? Will you be dressed to the nines, gleaming like the chrome on the stretch you rented? Wait. No. That’s from a dream I had about Paris. Or, right out of that party scene in the remake of “The Great Gatsby,” with Leonardo deCaprio!

We don’t offer that sort of grandeur here. In fact, global alerts are putting quite the damper on grand gatherings -- be they healthy sports or decadent glee -- all over the fruited plain. But they have it in Bejing. This year if you’re planning to celebrate New Year’s Eve 2016 there you’ll have hot night clubs, boat cruises, countless parties, formal hotel galas and more.

Pssst! Though it hasn’t been set in stone yet regarding this year, typically the two most significant countdown events are held at the Summer Palace (this one is a non-public event. Please! No huddled masses, no wretched refuse!) and The Place, where more countless numbers of partygoers will gather together under a giant television screen for the 60-second countdown to New Years Eve 2016.

But will they be watching The Ball Drop? The Waterford Crystal Ball, that is. That Times Square fixture incorporates more of our Western legacy than you may realize. In 1783, when Beethoven was publishing his first works and the world’s first hot-air balloon took place in Paris, in Waterford City, England the Penroses (George and William) petitioned Parliament for aid to establish the manufacture of flint glass in their Waterford Glass House. They were successful.

Which brings us to this year, in upstate New York, but regrettably without Guy Lombardo.

However, we have any number of large-screen

December 3, 2015 Holiday Gift Guide down, the DJ appears, and it’s time to dance.

T

here are creative alternatives. One friend attended a marathon All-Night Bingo Binge, complete with free dinner, soda pop and a $10,000 grand prize. She didn’t win, but that small detail hardly dimmed her enthusiasm.

Another friend, who worked at a Ski Resort That Shall Not Be Named, murmured softly about one dark New Year’s Eve, with just her lover, snowmobiling after hours to the very top of the mountain, and then exploring carnal pleasure in front of a wood fire in the deserted lodge. But it wasn’t the sex that made that New Year’s Eve so memorable. It was the fast, hushed, unsanctioned ride, the velvet sky, and all that anticipation as they sped through the shadows of bluewhite snow that did it for her.

For many it will be intimate dinner parties with close friends that mark the occasion. That became my choice after one last fateful blowout to which I was invited. I drove many hours to a friend’s weekend house but arrived late to the party in more ways than one. Unbeknownst to me, my friend had taken up with Hell’s Angels, and, as luck would have it (and lucky it was), I opened the door to the noisy fete just as a knife whistled past my head and pierced the door as I closed it. I backed out smiling, got in my car, and quickly peeled away. I suppose that is the exact hour I left youth behind.

And then there were all those years of food-service work. Everyone who did that has the same sort of PTSD. You know who you are. You tip large, show great patience when the pasta is undercooked, and express interest in your waiter’s dreams for him or herself. Together you look at the horizon.

You also have witnessed enough drunken crying jags on New Year’s Eve to last a lifetime. These jags featured nagging tugs on your sleeve or apron, or worse, found you in the hallway to the restroom and required you to prop up the inconsolable crier, whose tear-soaked face and runny nose moistened what had been your crisp white button-down. And he or she was wailing. Passers-by, perhaps your boss, assumed you had something to do with this suffering.

There is just so much of this, and the emptying of drink glasses filled with cigarette butts, mop duty in the ladies’ room, and negligent non-tipping that a person can bear. Nothing, not even wads of cash, can induce you back into that particular dragon’s lair, especially now that a certain governor’s sticky fingers are on that wad.

So, what to do As The World Turns, underneath a half-moon sky, as another year slips away and a new one creeps in and settles in front of us, like a very quiet kitty we’ve never seen before. Here we can hope for a myriad of stars in a clear sky, where the night is as dazzling as any firework display. We can take a walk,

WIKICOMMONS

Okay, so there's no Rio here come New Year's Eve. Unless one has a Blu-ray, or at least one of those new gadgets discussed earlier in this issue.

TVs in private homes and local bars, and we know how to use them. here was a time when Main Street in Tannersville was one giant party separated by an assortment of building styles, and brawny guys who didn’t drink but watched the doors. That time has passed. However, revelers need not fear. Celebrations persist, albeit not the “bucket o’ blood” variety revered by the frat boys, the three-beers-for-a-buck sort of patron.

Somewhat reminiscent of Olden Dayes, The Spinning Room on Main Street offers an L-shaped bar and The Buckaroo Burger in what has been described as “a dive bar.” (Not my words. Read the reviews.) What it lacks in atmosphere is more than made up for in tasty, inexpensive food and great customer service. (Read, also, how the waitress supplied customers with a box of brownie mix, thus sparing them what would have been an annoying trip to Tops Market while at the same time forever precluding any claims to pastry excellence by aforementioned dive bar.)

At the Deer Mountain Inn, located just minutes from Main Street, Route 23A in Tannersville, the atmosphere will be gaily chic, tastefully appointed, with plenty of good food, drink and music. It is a lovely way to send the Old Year packing and to welcome the New Year in style. There will be one seating, and/or a party afterwards. It’s a Black and White Masquerade, and I am thrilled to note that masks and headpieces are strongly recommended.

However, this experience is not to be confused with The Zombie Village. That’s at Hunter Mountain.

Seasons, at Windham Mountain, promises a mood is that equally festive, but with more of a family feeling. There will be a buffet, music, kids’ entertainment, and fireworks. It’s best to call ahead at both these destinations to reserve a place.

The Deer Mountain Inn is 518-589-6268, and Seasons at Windham Mountain is 518-734-4300.

At the Last Chance Tavern, also on Main Street in Tannersville, New Year’s Eve will be dark, but the following night, Friday, Tas Cru will appear, and Lara Hope and the Arc Tones will perform Saturday night.

In Palenville, again on Route 23A, at The Catskill Mountain Lodge there will be dinner.

Band leader and sax player Al Guart will lead a jazz ensemble. At about 10:30, the band breaks

T

| 25

or snowshoe in the silent forest, testing our nerve against a sighting of coyote, ermine, bobcat, owl.

We can drive to a deserted place and watch the moonlight on a frozen lake. Maybe a skater will be there, expressing the combination of wind and speed. Or we can find a wood fire, and listen to little creatures nestle in the eaves, and remember the night sounds of babies in bassinets, a lover coming back, a college friend popping in a doorway to tell about a party.

Ah, but the stuff of memory is tiring. If it is a clear night, and the stars are bright, look for The Milky Way. Native Americans believe it to be the path from the past to the future. Maybe you will have a vision. But you may want to be, not just outside, but outside yourself.

You may be saying “Turn me loose!” You may want to hyperventilate during the suspense of the countdown. You may wish to erupt in a grand “Huzzah” at the drop of the ball, or weep on the shoulder of your dance partner to the melancholy strains of Auld Lang Syne.

You can plan to party Hearty Marty, because in all these rural enclaves the faithful volunteer firemen, rescue-squad workers and snowplow guys will be poised together in anticipation of what such a night always brings. Thus, if you wish to get drunk, stoned, high, plastered, schnockered, or three sheets to the wind, you may do so in relative confidence that there is experienced help at the ready.

And there are taxis. So, celebrate, and hug and kiss all comers, simply because you are so moved.

By what? Who knows? Who cares! We were here to live another day, and it’s New Year’s Eve!

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3, 2015 26 | December Holiday Gift Guide

Holiday budgeting Holiday accounts really do make sense

By Lisa Carroll

M

y dad was a supersaver, most probably stemming from the effects of his growing up poor in the post-Great Depression world.

He was the youngest in a large family, overseen by a single parent, his mother having passed away soon after his birth.

From my earliest memories, I can recall envelopes of money — not much — tucked around the house, As my dad would say, “You never know when an emergency might occur.” In his sock drawer, he kept a stockpile of bottle-deposit slips before ShopRite changed their policies. He would cash in the week before my mom wanted to go Christmas shopping. For many maan years, this was their savings plan.

As I got a little older, myy dad opened a holiday-club account at their bank. The premise behind the ‘club’ was to deposit osit a certain amount of money every week ek during the savings period. In the case se of the holiday club, the money would ould be available to withdraw in time me for holiday shopping.

M&T Bank — with multiple ple locations in our readership area — offers such an account. According cording to manager Rammie Nesheiwat, iwat, the M&T club “is a simple special cial shortterm savings account that encourages nest-egg building for the holidays.” lidays.”

The process is simple. Thee account can be opened at any time with a small deposit, as small as a dollar. While thee account can be opened at any time — even after the holidays ys —money deposited into it viaa cash, payroll deduction or electronically would ould not be availavaail iable for withdrawal until the account matures. s.

For this holiday club, Nesheiwat explained, heiwat explained e , ed that isn’t until the start of the season he holiday seas a on on the second Thursday in October. For theirr

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Whether one is headed for the wonders of London’s graciously decorated Regent Street or simply making one’s own kids or grandkids happy at home, the holidays have a way of sapping income and savings.

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similar vacation club account, the funds become available the first Thursday in April.

When times got tighter when I was a pre-teen, my dad was in and out of hospitals—the effects of a bad ticker. The bills unpaid by his insurance piled up. The account was a godsend. I remember my dad dutifully submitting the earmarked money, with a coupon from the book, every week leading up to the holidays. At the end, we’d have enough—sometimes $1000 and sometimes only $500, depending on how hard that year had been.

Coupled with his bottle-deposit money, the funds would be spread out — often thinly—to cover the cost of all the holiday trimmings.

For those experiencing difficulties throughout the year, as in the case of my family, or for those that have a hard time saving in general, the hol-

iday iid dayy club is a workable solution ti on. on tion.

Tom To m and d I don’t save that Tom way. wa y IInstead, y. nstea we keep a tin ns ca an in the h kitchen we drop can our ou change chang ch g into. After the holiday has passed, I holida ho d y se da sseason a ad dd an envelope enve add to the can to hold money earmarked for the following Ch Christmas. Ideally, we don’t touch touc whatever funds end up in the envelope.

More ofe ten than not, an off week will happen where neither neithe of us gets a pay check and someone needs to get gas or n groceries.

The money saved s — no matter how h ho w little — ssoftens the blow of the holidays come January. No m atter how orchestrated your matter holiday h ho liday plans plan are, and what tthings th ings are inevitably in trimmed away, the hol holidays are still expensive. Seemingly Seeming more so, as our gro two little girls grow.

If I’ve learned learne anything going through the painful experiences of my dad’s failand our faming health hea it’s what ily’s finances, fin hol the holidays aren’t — or shouldn’t be — about. They buying affecshouldn’t be about ab tion — or proving it, it for that tha matter, which is a trap many parents and families fall into.

Tom and I can fill beneath the tree sky-high with the latest gadgets and gizmos, but weeks later my kids won’t remember — or possibly even play with many of them. They will, however, remember going to Cohen’s Bakery in Ellenville to decorate Christmas cookies. They’ll remember snuggling up to their dad and me, eating popcorn and watching Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas one more time, and leaving Christmas cookies and carrots out for Santa and his faithful crew. And they’ll remember breakfast with grandma, and the smorgasbord she puts out — the Willy Wonka of eggs.

Most importantly, they’ll remember the magic of the holidays. That’s as it should be.

December 3, 2015 Holiday Gift Guide

| 27

Year of the drone What better way to get ready for the real 2016 election season

by Dan Barton

G

et ready to start defending your airspace. This Christmas season, it’s estimated that a million drones will be given as gifts, the vast majority of which, I am predicting, will be given by people with questionable judgment to other people with questionable judgment. That means as soon as batteries can be shoved in the remote control aerial devices, neighborhoods across America will be buzzing, literally, with the sound of annoyance and evaporating privacy.

I’ll acknowledge that drones have value as scientific, industrial and security devices. They cause fewer civilian deaths than Vietnam-style carpet bombing security devices. I’ll also acknowledge that the Federal Aviation Administration is working as hard as Santa’s elves on Christmas Eve on a regulation system for drones.

But 2016 is going to be a banner year for neighbors getting on other neighbors’ nerves with these things, and considering the fragile state of Americans’ love for their fellow Americans the results could be disastrous. At least birds of prey have the common sense (in at least two YouTube videos I have seen) to attack the things on sight.

In this, the post-Snowden era of electronic surveillance, the concept of being able to do something and not have it recorded in a government server somewhere is rapidly dying. But, if you don’t engage in the Internet (and don’t type words into like “jihad” or “smart meters harmful effects” or “don’t shop on Black Friday”) you might have a chance of staying off the NSA’s many scopes.

But try to imagine this, some time early next year: You’re walking along a country lane or perhaps on a rail-trail. It’s a crisp, sunny winter day,

WIKICOMMONS

It’s been a year for drones, and now we expand into another where all definitions of the word “drone” will certainly come into play. Be very, very careful... and you’re alone with your thoughts, enjoying nature’s beauty in a peaceful, quiet way. You hear a sharp buzz, growing louder as it becomes nearer.

Your solitude is shattered by a drone, its camera (they all come with cameras, that’s the point) looking right at you. Who’s on the other end of it? Who knows? Maybe it’s a harmless hobbyist or filmmaker. Maybe it’s a kid who’s just figured out how to get a paintball gun on his drone and you’re the very first target of opportunity. Maybe it’s someone who just gets off on spying on people, and you’re today’s target.

Or this. You love living in your secluded Ulster wooded home, where no one can see you as you indulge in a bit of nude cavorting in your yard (ticks be damned!) while, and I’m not saying you or I do this but we know people do do this, smoking a doobie while listening to, I don’t know, Hendrix on your boom box. The Hendrix is up so loud, and you’re so enjoying a moment of true freedom in an increasingly stifling world, that you take no notice of the drone hovering above you. That is, until a little while later you check your Facebook and see that someone posted a video entitled “Na-

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ked Drugged hippie jumps around yard listening to Hendrix â&#x20AC;&#x201C; ainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t no fofxy lady LOL.â&#x20AC;? There you are, for all the online world to see. Or maybe this: Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in a doctorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office, in a large multistory medical edifice somewhere in, say, Lake Katrine, in some state of undress and in some manner of being examined â&#x20AC;&#x201D; hell, maybe itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s even a prostate exam or a gyno checkup â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and you idly look out the window and see a drone looking right back at you! Oh, wait, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s already happened. Lest we forget (how could we possibly?), 2016 is a big election year, not just for president but for state legislature and Congress, too. You know all those â&#x20AC;&#x153;Elect Me!â&#x20AC;? things everybody gets in the mail, sometimes as many as five of the same things for the same person in the same day? The things that irk the heck out of you, but â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and this is why they keep mailing them to you, by the way â&#x20AC;&#x201D; you look at for at least several seconds before you throw them in the recycle bin? Well, just wait until campaign operatives get their hands on drones. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll clip printouts of their candidatesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Facebook memes to them and fly them right in front of your face, until you run back inside your house. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget to close the door behind you! Hyperbole? Sure. (You want sane, sober assessments? Read the New York Post.) But, as history tells us, when a new thing becomes available on a massive scale, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always an initial period where chaos reigns while people are figuring out how to use the thing in a responsible manner that wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get them punched out or arrested. Maybe drones will transform commerce and usher in a new era of convenience and accessibility to consumers everywhere. Maybe the science-oriented uses of drones will make a better world for all of us. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too soon to tell. But maybe, based upon the kind of talk weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been having around the newsroom of late, Christmas 2016 will be the Christmas of the Anti-Drone Device. Radio jammers? Tennis-ball cannons powered by compressed air? Backyard-scale surface-to-air missiles? Trained birds of prey?Â

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