These inexpensive Christmas gifts are usually called stocking stuffers.
Month: August 2008
Which Backstreet Boy is celebrating a birthday today?
Happy 35th birthday to Howie Dorough. Also celebrating birthdays today are singer Tori Amos, Laverne and Shirley‘s Cindy Williams, and sci-fi author Ray Bradbury.
Who started the tradition of exchanging gifts for Christmas?
The tradition of exchanging gifts during Christmas stems from the ancient celebration of Saturnalia, during which the Romans exchanged gifts with each other.
This sultry “Sex and the City” star is celebrating her 52nd birthday today. Who is she?
If you guessed Kim Cattrall, you’re correct. Also celebrating birthdays today are country music singer Kenny Rogers, jazz musician Count Basie, and NBA champion Wilt Chamberlain.
What popular bite-sized chocolate candy comes wrapped in red and green foil during the Christmas season?
This festive Christmas candy is Hershey’s Kisses. Hershey first introduced its line of Kisses in 1907, and it wasn’t until 1962 when they first started wrapping the teardrop chocolates in Christmas colored foils.
Greeting Cards and Great Decisions Lead to Success in Business
There is a book out by John McCain along with Mark Salter entitled “Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them,” which relates inspirational stories about people in different walks of life who made tough decisions in order to achieve success. One of the more interesting chapters is about businessman Marshall Field who developed innovative ideas and, through hard work as well, established his own department store, which to this day is still in business.
Working for a long-established and most successful greeting cards company, The Gallery Collection, I found quite a few similarities between Field’s business practices and the one’s used by our longtime owner, Arnold S. For instance, the book talks about how Field gave wide responsibilities to his customer service employees to make decisions normally made by supervisors or top executives. In our company, our employees also have the freedom to decide on account credits or whether a customer deserves a new order of greeting cards free of charge.
Field also felt that practicing conservative techniques – taking the time before deciding if an idea will be successful before discounting it – was sound for business. The Gallery Collection, having already established a successful line of all occasion cards decades before, spent quite a few years deciding whether to enter the business Christmas cards arena. Ultimately, the Christmas cards sales have exceeded all expectations and have become a major part of the company’s success story.
To promote employee loyalty, Field made it his credo to treat his employees with courtesy and respect at all times. Our owner and CEO, Mr. S, has done the same, which is one reason why so many employees are still with the company after 20 and 30 years of employment.
This particular chapter in McCain’s book illustrates only some of the attributes Marshall Field used to become the successful owner of the “largest department store in the world,” and which other businesspeople can subscribe to in order to become successful as well.
Which famous singer-songwriter, who was the first African American to win an Academy Award for composing a song for a movie, would’ve been celebrating his birthday today?
Happy Birthday to the late Isaac Hayes. Don’t give him the “shaft” today. Also celebrating birthdays today are meteorologist and news persona Al Roker, news anchor Connie Chung, and “Valley of the Dolls” author Jacqueline Susann.
What traditional Christmas drink contains sugar, milk, and eggs and is garnished with nutmeg?
This Christmas drink, dating back to Medieval Europe, is commonly known as eggnog.
Today’s birthday honoree was a star with a cherry-like name on TV’s most “amicable” sitcom. Can you guess who he is?
Happy 39th birthday to Friends star Matthew Perry. Also celebrating birthdays today are the 42nd President William Jefferson Clinton, actress Jill St. John, and jockey Willie Shoemaker.
Who wrote “Twas the Night Before Christmas?”
“Twas the Night Before Christmas” was written by Clement C. Moore and published in 1823 under the original title, “A Visit from St. Nicholas.”