PROGRAMMING NOTE!

I hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year’s holiday with your family and friends, and don't get stuck at the airport. To allow my staff to spend the holidays with their families, we’ll be taking a break next week from the news which (I hope!) will slow down between Christmas and New Year’s.

But keep checking your email box and the Internet because we’ve prepared plenty of material in advance, including our holiday tradition: sharing some of the amazing, moving, hilarious and inspirational family Christmas stories sent to me by my radio listeners and inspired by my book, “A Simple Christmas.” Rest assured that if anything does happen in the news that cries out for comment and reportage, we’ll put down our candy canes and pumpkin pie and rush to our keyboards to cover it.  

From me, Pat, Laura, David, Chris and everyone at the Huckabee Newsletter, and all my crew from "Huckabee" on TBN, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

“Huckabee” Preview

I hope you had a great Christmas-New Year’s week! We’ll be back on Monday with a recap of this week’s news and all the latest headlines.

In the meantime, be sure to join me tonight for a very special New Year’s Eve edition of “Huckabee” on TBN! We’ll see out the old year with a couple of my all-time favorite guests, Dr. Phil McGraw and the king of celebrity impressionists, Rich Little. I’ll take a look back at the best of 2023 (yes, there were some “bests," on our show, at least), and laugh with the final “In Case You Missed It” of the holiday season. The First Lady of Southern Cooking, Miss Daisy King, will share a black-eyed pea recipe to get your 2024 off to a lucky start. And we’ll welcome in the new year with a fantastic musical performance by Tre Corley and the Music City Connection.

The celebration gets started tonight at 8 and 11 EST, 7 and 10 CST, and Sunday at 9 EST/8 CST on TBN. To find out how to watch TBN, from local cable and broadcast channels to streaming, visit https://www.huckabee.tv and click on “Channel Finder” on the top menu. You can stream previous episodes, highlights and online-only “Digital Exclusives,” including extended interviews, “In Case You Missed It” and “Facts of the Matter” segments, plus extra performances by our great musical and comedy guests and links to all their sites, at https://www.huckabee.tv. You can also find past shows, highlights and digital exclusives on YouTube and my Facebook page.

How a small gesture can grow over time into a cherished family Christmas tradition

Angie from Wyoming shared a wonderful story of how a small gesture can grow over time into a cherished family Christmas tradition:

“My mother began a Christmas tradition over 60 years ago when she was a young mother. At times I think she wishes she would not have started it, but there is no stopping it.

Years ago, she found a pattern in what she believes was Better Homes and Gardens magazine for knitted Christmas stockings. She had three small children at the time and knitted each one a stocking which was personalized with their names knit into the pattern...the tradition began.

Not only has she hand-knitted Christmas stockings for several of her friends’ children as well as nieces and nephews, she has knitted stockings for all of her eight children and their spouses, 24 grandchildren and their spouses, and over 30 great-grandchildren. The Christmas stockings are such a big deal, I had to change the spelling of my oldest daughter’s name so it would fit within the parameters of the stocking pattern.

Each stocking takes weeks to complete and as the years have gone by, they are getting larger as her crippled hands knit more loosely than when she knitted her very first one. To date, the last stocking was finished days ago for my granddaughter…Someday as she grows older, hopefully she will cherish the hands and heart that created such a masterpiece.

I am grateful for my mother's selfless determination to carry on this tradition and know it hasn't been easy. I love her so much for that and am convinced I am going to have to learn to knit, not because my future grandchildren need matching stockings, but because I want her legacy of love to continue.”

PS - Angie sent me this story in 2011, so I assume she’s learned to knit by now!

A time when playing Santa Claus should have come with hazardous duty pay

Recently, police officers have become targets of hatred, assaults and even deadly violence.  Right now is a perfect time to stop and reflect on the many ways in which police officers and other first responders such as firefighters and EMTs give up their holidays so that we can enjoy ours in safety.  Many officers also go above and beyond the call of duty by performing incredible volunteer work.  One of those was a listener of mine named Randy, a retired police sergeant from Wyoming.  He shared a memory of a time when playing Santa Claus should have come with hazardous duty pay. 

Randy wrote:

"For many years, it was my distinct pleasure to assume the role of 'real Santa' at Christmas time. Though my sleigh was still a black and white sedan, my uniform changed from dark blues to a genuine Santa suit. I appeared on Christmas Eve, right at bedtime, delivering toys to needy children as well as my fellow officers…who had small children. What made this all work was the 'understanding' of the parents to make sure the kids were close to the front window upon my arrival, that they were not allowed out on the porch (where I left their gifts) until I was out of sight, and under NO circumstances were any pets to be loose.

All the parents were following Santa's instructions to the letter...until I got to my Chief's house. I gently placed (his sons') gifts on the porch (and) began to shake the bells, anticipating three squashed, tiny faces peering into the frosty night, trying to catch a glimpse of Santa. To my surprise...No faces. I shook the bells harder and added a hearty ‘HO, HO, HO!’ Still, no faces.

Now in mid-‘HO,’ I heard the front door open and a small dog barking. 'For cryin' out loud,' I muttered, as I jumped toward the driveway. If only I'd remembered the small wire fence surrounding his wife's flower bed. There was no time to pick myself up, as I heard high-pitched giggles floating on the cold night air.  A quick double combat roll placed me out of innocent eyes' way, underneath my boss's pickup truck."

Then Randy heard a noise that seemed to be very close: "I smelled the dog food on his breath a scant millisecond before he yapped out the alarm. The 'WHOA!' that jumped from my lips was cut painfully short as I rammed my head into the pickup's driveline... The thought crossed my mind to reach out and pinch off his little windpipe, but that seemed a bit ugly for Christmas Eve."

A pair of cowboy boots suddenly replaced the dog: "I recognized my boss's voice as the words, 'Merry Christmas, heh, heh, heh," settled onto the cold concrete... 'Merry Christmas, Chief,' I replied as a solitary drop of black engine oil struck me dead center in the forehead. 'THANKS FOR NOT TURNING ON THE PORCH LIGHT!'

I continued on my rounds, a black greasy racing stripe running from my white curly beard to my belt, a well-lubricated lump on my forehead. I finished just as a soft snow began to fall, covering everything in a glistening blanket of white. It seemed the perfect punctuation mark to end another Christmas on Patrol."

Thanks again for that great story, Randy.  And thanks to all the police officers and other first responders and military members who go above and beyond, and sometimes even roll underneath, to keep us all safe during the holidays and all year ‘round.

A beautiful story

One thing we all learned from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is that it’s not how fancy your tree is that matters, it’s the love it represents.  A radio listener of mine named Vicky from California sent me a beautiful story that illustrated that as well as Charles M. Schulz did.

Vicky recalled a time years before, when her young family was desperately poor and struggling to provide Christmas for their three small children.  Her husband brought home a tree, but was so exhausted after working 14 hours, he hadn't noticed it was dead and brown on one side. 

A neighbor tried to help by giving them a little 18-inch, lighted tabletop tree.  Vickie thought it was so small and ugly, she began to cry at the thought that this shrunken thing would be their family's tree.  Just then, her little daughter began to cry, too, and hugged her. But she was crying for a very different reason.

The little girl said in awe, “That is the most beautiful tree I have ever seen. Do we really get to have that as our tree this year?" 

Vicki wrote, “I had a permanent attitude change.  That night, I couldn't stop thanking our Heavenly Father enough for His blessings.”  

Thank you, Vicki. That story puts a new spin on “a little child shall lead them.” 

Anything can become a cherished memory

Beth from Texas offered a story whose moral is that anything can become a cherished memory if it’s associated with the joy of Christmas, and I do mean ANYTHING!...

“For many years, my sister (who teaches Kindergarten) and I would deliver any gifts from the Angel tree at K-Mart that had not been picked up by Christmas Eve. Many of the names were ones familiar to my sister, and we loaded up the car and put on our Santa hats and went delivering in everything from snow to rain...this to us was the true meaning of Christmas.

One place we would always stop about half-way through our deliveries was the Beasley Memorial Funeral Home - it had a drive-up viewing window in front!

The first Christmas after K-Mart closed, my sister and I were both at loose ends on Christmas Eve. I drove us over to sit in the driveway of the funeral home so it felt more like Christmas Eve. Happy to say some of our best Christmas Eves were spent sitting in that driveway! Merry Christmas to you!”

Bill Maher’s insight

From 2 weeks ago, but Bill Maher has more insight than the entire UN & most people pretending to be experts about realities of the world. Comedic brilliance!

https://x.com/billmaher/status/1735886698360586367?s=20

100% accurate statement by @AriFleischer:

Make no mistake: Attempts to throw Trump off the ballot are white-collar insurrections, carried out by Democrats in powerful positions, who falsely use the "law" as a weapon. They fear a vote of the people, so they resort to this. This is an insurrection.

Watch Mike On TV

Huckabee: This makes people even more determined to vote for Trump

Watch my interview here: Huckabee: This makes people even more determined to vote for Trump - Read Mike's News Analysis - Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee: This is absurd

Watch my interview here: Mike Huckabee: This is absurd - Read Mike's News Analysis - Mike Huckabee

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