In Dr. Seuss’s famous story How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the Grinch marvels that Christmas “… came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes, or bags!” One thing it could not have come without, however, is a baby — the baby Jesus. In today’s Christmas celebrations, the baby is largely overlooked, if not forgotten altogether. Yet Christmas is the perfect time to reflect on our attitudes toward babies — especially unborn babies — and their famili

The copy boys at the Los Angeles Times at Christmas in 1962 were around my age — I was 21 and like me they were eager to learn the news business. My closest friend was Lance Brisson, also a Times copy boy. His mother was the movie star Rosalind Russell, famous particularly as Auntie Mame on Broadway and in the successful film of that title. Lance’s father, Freddie Brisson, was a producer of Hollywood movies and Broadway plays and at that time president of Columbia Studios. Ho

An invitation from my friend and Christian brother, the Ink Stained Wretch, to write about Christmas proved far harder than I might have expected. What insight can one add to an originally Christian holiday that has become ingrained in American culture to the point where many of those of other faiths celebrate it? Does one bemoan the commercialization of Christmas? That’s been done, repeatedly. What about noting the increasingly early appearance of Christmas wares in shops —

December is not just a time for gift-giving, but a gift unto itself. Even in most secularized households, the 25th is a day set apart — a time to believe in something beyond ourselves; a time to focus on something greater. Many are cynical and focus on the over-commercialized “Santa Claus-and-twinkle lights” aspects of this month, lamenting them as distractions away from the meaning of the season. Certainly they can be, but we must see them in full: In a society that has in