A gift to the library is a gift to the community

As 2011 draws to a close, if you are con­sid­er­ing donat­ing to var­i­ous causes, orga­ni­za­tions and char­i­ties, please include the Delaware County Dis­trict Library in your con­sid­er­a­tions. Donat­ing to the Library is a long-standing tra­di­tion in Delaware, and each year we receive sev­eral thou­sands of dol­lars from patrons who are hon­or­ing or remem­ber­ing loved ones.

Library staff will pur­chase books, DVDs, or audio books with your gift, con­sult­ing you to make sure that the items bought per­fectly match with the areas of inter­est of those being hon­ored. Every item bought with dona­tions will receive a spe­cial book plate to des­ig­nate or honor an indi­vid­ual, fam­ily or orga­ni­za­tion, or in the mem­ory of a loved one. A $25.00 dona­tion will pur­chase one book or DVD, or help to buy an audio book.

You can pick up the “Buy-A-Book” brochure at any library loca­tion that has com­plete details on how to donate and lists the options that let you tell us how you would like your dona­tion to be used. Checks, cash and credit cards are all wel­come. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

As a reminder, the Library and its branches will be closed Dec. 24 and 25, and Jan. 1 so our employ­ees may enjoy the hol­i­days with their families.

Joy­ous hol­i­days and a won­der­ful New Year from the Board of Trustees and the staff of the Delaware County Dis­trict Library!

What is Box­ing Day?

Accord­ing to The Folk­lore of World Hol­i­days, Box­ing Day is a bank or pub­lic hol­i­day that occurs on Decem­ber 26, or the first or sec­ond week­day after Christ­mas Day. It is observed in Aus­tralia, Canada, New Zealand, the United King­dom and some other Com­mon­wealth nations. The exact ety­mol­ogy of the term “box­ing” is unclear, but the tra­di­tion has long included giv­ing money and other gifts to those who were needy and in ser­vice posi­tions. In the UK, it was a cus­tom for trades­men to col­lect “Christ­mas boxes” of money or presents on the first week­day after Christ­mas as thanks for good ser­vice through­out the year. Another expla­na­tion is that in exchange for ensur­ing that wealthy landown­ers’ Christ­mases ran smoothly, their ser­vants were allowed to take the 26th off to visit their fam­i­lies. The employ­ers gave each ser­vant a box con­tain­ing gifts and bonuses, some­times includ­ing left­over food.

An Aus­tralian friend men­tioned that he was miss­ing his Christ­mas Damper. What is that?

Christ­mas damper is a com­pletely Aus­tralian dish, a soda bread that could be made with sim­ple ingre­di­ents by those trav­el­ing the vast expanses of Aus­tralia. For Christ­mas, damper is made into a wreath shape and served with but­ter, jam, honey or golden syrup. The basic ingre­di­ents are flour, salt, sugar, but­ter, milk or water, and bicar­bon­ate soda. Once made into dough, it can be baked in a hot oven or in the ashes of a cook­ing fire. The com­plete recipe is in Christ­mas Cook­ing Around the World.

Was there a sequel to “A Christ­mas Story?”

I checked the Inter­na­tional Movie Data­base web­site (imdb.com) and found that there are two little-talked-about sequels. The first one was a 1988 made-for-TV movie, “Ollie Hopnoodle’s Haven of Bliss.” Jerry O’Connell played 14-year-old Ral­phie, who is excited about his first job as a fur­ni­ture mover. “My Sum­mer Story” debuted in 1994. Kieran Culkin played Ral­phie, Mary Steen­bur­gen as his mom, and Charles Grodin as his dad.

If you have a ques­tion that you would like to see answered in this col­umn, mail it to Mary Jane San­tos, Delaware County Dis­trict Library, 84 E. Win­ter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call us at 740–362-3861. You can also email your ques­tions by vis­it­ing the library’s web­site, delawarelibrary.org or directly to Mary Jane at mjsantos@delawarelibrary.org. No mat­ter how you con­tact us, we’re always glad you asked!

Posted by Mary Santos on Dec 24 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.