2007 December « Mindy Hardwick – The Magical Writer

Archive for December, 2007|Monthly archive page

Artist Mentors

Posted December 23, 2007
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Along with the spirit of giving and artistic mentorship, check out this link…..WOW! I wish I lived in Alexandria, Virginia! I’d sign up to be one of these fabulous mentors!

SOHO–Art Mentorship for pre-teen girls.

Poetry and Art

Posted December 21, 2007
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Often people want to know more about the work I do with the youth at Denney Juvenile Justice Center. The following is an article which was printed in the Seattle Times last March. It has been archived here.

Santa Claus

Posted December 11, 2007
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In June, I was working on some research about toys and Santa Clause. Tis the season…and I thought the blog needed repeating…Enjoy!

“Yes. It’s July. And yes, if I’m going to blog about holidays it should be July 4th. So, why am I writing about Santa Claus?

Well, as my previous blog entry stated, I am on a research journey into the land of toys and games. And when one researches toys and games…..Santa Claus appears!

Many years ago, when I worked in a bookstore, I discovered the book, The Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guinn. The story, told in Santa’s point of view, is one of the best stories for gleaming the history of Christmas and gift giving. I was hooked!

A couple years later, I found How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas by Jeff Guinn. Again, this book combines history with story to create a wonderful tale about 1667 England when Christmas was almost lost thanks to the English Puritans.

Then, yesterday, I stumbled upon the third book in this series, The Great Santa Search by Jeff Guinn. The story starts with exploring the tradition of a Santa at every corner” and moves into a tale of what happens when a Reality TV show wants to find out “Who is the real Santa?” Again, like the other two books in the series, the story is loaded with fascinating historical tidbits about the history of Santa.