December 12 window – Yarn and knitting needles

OK – I will admit that today’s window picture of the balls of yarn and the knitting needles on the couch is a bit of a stretch with our Holiday TV guest Anthony Johnson.  As you have noticed by now, we are figuring all this out as we are doing our first season. We promise you that it will get better and better each year ahead.

When I planned the window pictures much earlier this year, I wanted that knitting needle and yarn picture because it reminds me of the winters in Denmark where I grew up. We had a class in second grade that taught us to knit, so all people in Denmark (well – at least my age) know how to knit. As we grew up, we all had some kind of knitting project going, creating hats, scarves, mittens, sweaters or anything we could think about. A huge part of the fun was to choosing the yarns and making our own designs. These knitted creations also made fabulous Christmas presents and I have to say that my anytime someone gives me a present that they have created themselves, I love it more than anything else (my kids still don’t believe this J). My sister (who is still knitting in Denmark) made me a beautiful hand-knitted shawl for Christmas a couple of years ago and I use it at home almost every night in the winters here in California.

Living in Santa Barbara, CA where it is not that cold in the winter and where people don’t do much knitting, it was difficult to find guests who knit. So the way I see it is that Anthony Johnson could maybe represent that image because knitting is about creating something wonderful and that is what Mr. Johnson does.

December 9 window – The Peace Dove

The Symbol of The Dove

The Dove Universally Symbolizes innocence, gentleness, conjugal affection, peace and constancy. It reminds us how important peace is. The peace symbolized by the Dove is that of the deepest kind. It quiets our worried and troubled thoughts, and allows us to find renewal in the silence of mind. In such moments of stillness we are able to appreciate simple blessings. It reminds us that no matter what is happening in our lives, there are always new possibilities open to us.

The Cultural Significance of The Dove:
In the Old Testament: the dove represents simplicity; harmlessness, innocence; meekness; guilelessness; incubation. It also embodies the souls of the dead.

Hindu: Yama, god of the dead, has owls and doves or pigeons as messengers.

Islamic: The three Holy Virgins are represented by stones, or pillars surrounded by doves.

Japanese: the dove was sacred to Hackiman the god of war, but it was a dove with a sword that announced the end to war.

Chinese: In China, Doves are symbolic of good digestion, impartial filial duty, and long life.

Pagans: it has been widely understood as a symbol of conjugal affection and constancy, because of the affectionate mating habits and constancy of the species popularly known as turtle doves.

Motherhood and Femininity:
Doves are sacred to all Great Mothers and Queens of Heaven and depict femininity and maternity; often two doves accompany the Mother Goddess.

According to legend the devil and witches can turn themselves into any bird shape except the dove.

The Olive leaf
The actual symbol of peace is the olive leaf, not the dove, which brought the leaf back to Noah. Perhaps this is the origin of offering an olive branch to signify peaceful intentions, like in The Aeneid, Virgil’s epic poem about the founding of Rome.

The olive branch is a dynamic symbol of the human desire for peace. Olives are naturally associated with peace because, practically speaking, one cannot cultivate an olive grove in a war zone. Many years of peace are necessary to grow olive trees, which take several years to produce their first fruit (and can live for 500 years). Farming itself is a peaceful occupation, but the olive has special qualities that can be associated with peace and harmony:

•    Olives provide oil for lamps, so they bring light.
•    The cleansing power of olive oil brings purification.
•    The hardiness of the olive tree suggests fertility and vital energy.
•    Hercules gained protection by wearing a wreath of olive leaves.
•    Olive wreaths signified victory in the Olympic Games.

The mythological origin of the olive tree’s association with peace goes back to a contest between Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom*, and Poseidon, the god of the sea. Whoever could produce the gift most useful to mortals would win. Poseidon offered the horse, useful in warfare. Athena’s gift was the olive tree, which the gods judged to be the more useful. Athena was awarded the city of Athens.

Charity Calendar is selling in the best Santa Barbara & Solvang Stores

We are very excited to be selling the beautiful Charity Calendar online on our website for all people who do not live in Santa Barbara or in Solvang. You can find it online at: http://www.taccfoundation.org/calendar or on Amazon.com. They cost $8.99 +shipping if you by them on our website.

The Charity Calendar is also sold at Borders Books downtown Santa Barbara, at Paper Star,  Lewis & Clarke in Santa Barbara and Montecito, Chaucer’s Books, Tecolote  Book Shop in Montecito, Gerda’s Iron Art in Solvang and The Book Loft in Solvang.

On December 1st it will be time to open the first “window” of lovely Charity Calendar and find out what the first picture is. We invite everyone to join our daily blog where we will invite all people to share stories about their own personal favorite holiday tradition. It will be great fun.

The First TACC Foundation Press Release – November 6, 2008

Unique New Tradition to Celebrate the Winter Holiday & Christmas Season: The American Charity Calendar

Popular Danish Christmas Tradition Introduced to the United States

SANTA BARBARA, CA, Nov 06, 2008 (MARKET WIRE) — We are pleased to announce the debut of a brand new annual Winter Holiday/Christmas Tradition in the USA: The American Charity Calendar! (www.taccfoundation.org). The American Charity Calendar is a multi-level event, with multiple benefits, but more than anything, it is a new way to celebrate the winter holidays, may it be Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza or anything that might be your holiday tradition.

Each year, this unique, beautiful paper Charity Calendar uses the winning artwork from the TACC online art contest (www.tacc-art.org).

On December 1st, individuals and families can open the first numbered “window” on their Charity Calendar and find a surprise picture behind the “window.” Audiences will also be treated to an entertaining daily Internet television series, “Holiday TV,” (www.taccfoundation.org/youtube) that will interact with that day’s paper Charity Calendar’s hidden surprise picture. New segments will be released daily for viewing December 1 through December 25 on our website as well as YouTube.com.

The TACC Charity Calendar marks the first time this tradition will be introduced in the United States of America. The Charity Calendar is modeled after a popular Danish holiday tradition that has already proven to be a huge success. Since 1962, many talented Danish artists have illustrated “The Danish Christmas Calendar” annually and at least 25 different television productions have been produced while Calendar proceeds have been donated to numerous noble children’s charities.

The American Charity Calendar will be sold in major retail stores in Santa Barbara County including Borders Books, Tecolote Book Shop, Chaucer’s Books, Lewis & Clark as well as on-line via www.taccfoundation.org/calendar and Amazon.com. The proceeds will be donated to Vitamin Angels in 2008 (www.vitaminangels.org).

TACC Gallery is a new free on-line art gallery (and artists’ resource) that invites all young artists to publish their artwork to our website (www.tacc-art.org). The gallery will provide a rich and creative resource for young artists, like 23-year-old Jada Fitch from Maine who illustrated the 2008 Charity Calendar!

For more information please visit www.taccfoundation.org

The American Charity Calendar is moving forward

We are moving ahead with out wonderful American Charity Calendar project. Finally, we are almost ready to announce our amazing online art-gallery portal: tacc-art.org. Artists will be able to create an account and upload their artwork for free and share it with the world. We will reach out to artists of fine art, sculpture, photography, fashion design, functional art and more. At first we will reach out to our local schools in Santa Barbara and other central coast schools. One would ask why our gallery is more special than other online art galleries? With ours we hope to invite new and upcoming artist rather than professional artist, even though we would never turn any artist away. Tacc-art.org will have a portal with rich educational resources like art school information, scholarship information and much more. We will also be adding a shopping-cart so that all artists can sell their art directly to the consumer through our gallery.

TACC is based on the traditional Christmas Advent Calendar

For the longest time I had a huge dilemma about the naming of our new non-profit organization. At first it was “The American Christmas Calendar”, but since it is NOT a religious project, I did not want to exclude families and individuals who have other faiths, belief systems or any at all. Even though The Charity Calendar is based on the traditional European Advent Calendar, we are not marketing this as a Christian project or Foundation, since we are not. One of the first non-profit organization (and my favorite) that we talked to about donating our profits to them, say that they did NOT want their name associated with any religion-focused companies. They felt that when people need help it does not matter what faith they might have and I agree with then 100 %.

The next obvious name was “The American Winter Holiday Calendar”, but that did not feel right either. After handing out business cards with that name, I felt as if I had taken on the attitude of the extreme “politically correct” people who a few years ago suggested that we name a “Christmas Tree” a “Holiday Tree” so that we would not offend anyone. So the name changed back to “The American Christmas Calendar” for a little while until one day “The American Charity Calendar” came to me while I was researching charity organizations. I loved it instantly and it is the most perfect name for this project.

The first year’s theme will be “How the Winter Holidays are Celebrated in Different Cultures” and we hope to reach all kinds of people and inspire giving and sharing – no matter what winter-holiday they might celebrate.