From the Editor’s Desk

Are your halls decked? Do dreams of sugar plums dance in your head? Do you even know what a sugar plum is? ☺
For those of us who have no idea what a sugar plum is, this Editor decided to do some holiday investigating of this one line of the infamous Christmas poem “The Night Before Christmas”, as well as the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from the Nutcracker.
Visions of sugarplums danced in their heads.
Alright, this obviously inspires pictures of little children snuggled in their warm blankies, sleeping and dreaming of sugarplums. But just what in the world is a sugarplum?
It turns out I am not the only one to ask this question, and thankfully, Google is full of answers. A sugar plum, according to the Food Network site, is a “small confection, often consisting of cruit such as a candied cherry or dried apricot surrounded by fondant.” They don’t even need plums in them!
The term “plummy” seems to originate back in the early 19th Century, where things were referred to as “plummy” if they were sweet.
So, in short, sugar plums are sweet treats. No wonder children are dreaming of them before Christmas. Their stockings are sure to have some sweet treats inside, and it’s usually the only day of the year that they are allowed to eat it before breakfast!
Now the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”, from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, is a sweet treat for the artist or any enjoying great ballet and physical beauty.
So I suppose that anything “Sugar Plum” related is simply sweet.
This issue is just ‘plummy’ for me to produce. I absolutely love it. Quite literally it is one of the issues that I hold most dear to my heart.
It holds such a true sweetness in the fact and truth behind why we celebrate Christmas. Now, I know that Jesus Christ wasn’t born in December – it was probably March or April.
I know all those facts, and yet still this is the time of year that we have chosen to celebrate His birth.
A sweet time of life in the midst of a dreary winter season. A ray of hope for all who are frustrated with life, providing a day on which to simply celebrate the joy of giving.
The joy of giving because we were first given to. God gave us His greatest Gift of all in His Son. His Son then reciprocated the greatest gift to us Himself, by dying on the cross so we could have eternal life and be blameless in the eyes of the Father.
He died for our sins – covered us and made us blameless. That is, if we choose to accept His birth, life and death as the truth that it is.
Newborn babies are a sweet blessing to us, and this Newborn baby, born so long ago, was the sweetest gift of all.
We wish you a ‘plummy’ Christmas season, filled with love and the joy of giving gifts from your heart to those you love so dearly. Merry Christmas!
Michelle Myre
Publisher / Editor