The month of December is the twelfth and last month in the Gregorian calendar. It was the tenth month in the ancient Roman calendar and its name comes from the Latin word decem, meaning “ten”. It is the month with the shortest daylight hours of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the longest daylight hours of the year in the Southern Hemisphere.
December is the most festive month of the year. It is the month when people all over the world celebrate the birth of Christ, and many activities are carried out in preparation of that great day. The season of preparation, which is called “Advent” in the Christian calendar, begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas.
It is a month of happy traditions. Many people keep up customs that have been in their families for generations. They cook special dishes that originated with their forefathers, such as the English plum pudding or the Swedish lutefisk and other delicacies. December is the month for the singing of Christmas carols, the trimming of the tree, the writing of Christmas cards, and the selection of gifts for Christmas giving.
This is the month of Santa Claus in the United States and the month of Saint Nicholas in the countries of Europe. St. Nicholas has a feast day on the 6th, and on that day he brings fruit and cakes to children who have been good.
The last day of the month closes the year. In Japan it is a time of stocktaking and the payment of debts. December 31 is called “Hogmanay Day” in Scotland and it is a day when adults exchange presents and give cakes to children. It is also Saint Sylvester’s Day, which is observed in Germany and Belgium, with customs that anticipate the New Year. In Belgium, the last child out of bed on the morning of December 31 is a “Sylvester”, a lazy one who has to pay a tribute to early risers. In the United States the last hours of the month and the year constitute New Year’s Eve, a time of merrymaking for adults and Watch Night parties for young people.
The poinsettia has come to be the flower that is symbolic of December. Holly and mistletoe are also special floral decorations used at Christmas time.
This month has two birthstones, the turquoise and the zircon.
December is also:
Bingo Month
Write a Friend Month
National Egg Nog Month
National Fruit Cake Month
From Holiday Insights.com
Did you know? There are occasional “Leap Seconds” added to the official year. We will spare you the detail on those, except to say it helps to correct minor variations. A leap second is a one-second adjustment that is occasionally applied to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in order to keep its time of day close to the mean solar time, or UT1. Without such a correction, time reckoned by Earth’s rotation drifts away from atomic time because of irregularities in the Earth’s rate of rotation. Since this system of correction was implemented in 1972, 27 leap seconds have been inserted, the most recent on December 31, 2016, at 23:59:60 UTC.
On December 7, 1787 Delaware ratified the Constitution, becoming the 1st state.
On December 12, 1787, Pennsylvania joined the union as the 2nd state.
On December 18, 1787, New Jersey became the 3rd state.
On December 11, 1816 Indiana became the 19th state
On December 10, 1817 Mississippi became the 20th state.
On December 3, 1818, Illinois became the 21st state.
On December 14, 1819, Alabama became the 22nd state.
On December 29, 1845, Texas became the 28th state.
On December 28, 1846, Iowa became the 29th state.
Birthday of Jonathan Swift (1667) , English clergyman, poet, satirist remembered for “Gulliver’s Travels” and A Modest Proposal.
Publication of
Birthday of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) (1835), American author. Wrote “Tom Sawyer”, “Huckleberry Finn”, “Life on the Mississippi”, and many more. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is in the public domain and is available at our other site, 
Birthday of Sir Winston Churchill (1874), British statesman, prime minister. One of only eight “Honorary citizens of the U. S.”
Fort Worth’s Wild Bunch gang, Kid Curry Logan, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labor. In the picture, the two men standing are William “News” Carver and Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan. The three sitting are Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, aka “Sundance Kid”; Ben Kilpatrick, aka “Tall Texan”; and Robert Leroy Parker, aka “Butch Cassidy”. 
Birthday of “American Bandstand” producer and host, Dick Clark, (November 30, 1929) in Mount Vernon, N.Y. Dubbed “America’s oldest teenager”.
On this date in 2018,
Birthday of Louisa May Alcott (November 28, 1832), author of “Little Women” and many more. Raised in New England by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May and Amos Bronson Alcott, she grew up among many of the well-known intellectuals of the day, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Thomas Edison demonstrated his phonograph for the first time in 1877.
Birthday of C.S.(Clive Staples) Lewis (November 29, 1898), a British writer and lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University and Cambridge University. He is best known for his works of fiction, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain
“Kukla, Fran, and Ollie” debuted on NBC in 1948.
November 28, 1520 – The first navigation of the Magellan Strait, to the south of mainland South America, was completed by Ferdinand Magellan and his crew.
Birthday of William Blake, (November 28, 1757), English poet, painter and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. 
Publication of
1943 – World War II: 
Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn were made Honorary Citizens of the United States on November 28, 1984.
1895 – Alfred Nobel’s will established the Nobel Prizes
In New York City, the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was held in 1924.
Bank robber Baby Face Nelson (Lester Joseph Gillis) died in a shoot-out with the FBI in 1934. Nelson was responsible for killing more FBI agents than any other person. He was a member of the gang of John Dillinger. His death is called 
In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook became the first European to visit Maui in 1778. He was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
The tomb of Tutankhamun was entered on November 26, 1922. Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to enter the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in over 3000 years.
Birthday of Charles Schulz (November 26, 1922), American cartoonist and creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip.
A classic Thanksgiving tradition!
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified Republican George W. Bush the winner over Democrat Al Gore in the state’s 2000 presidential balloting by 537 votes.
Birthday of Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835). He led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history. He became a leading philanthropist in the United States and in the British Empire.
Birthday of Carrie Nation (November 25, 1846), American temperance leader who used a hatchet to implement her campaign against saloons.
Woody Woodpecker debuts with release of Walter Lantz’s “Knock Knock” in 1940.
On November 24, 1859 – Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, the anniversary of which is sometimes called “Evolution Day”. He was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. His proposition that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors is now widely accepted, and considered a foundational concept in science.
Birthday of Scott Joplin (November 24, 1868), an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions and was dubbed the King of Ragtime. During his brief career, he wrote over 100 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas.
Birthday of Dale Carnegie, (November 24, 1888), an American writer and lecturer, and the developer of courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. Born into poverty on a farm in Missouri, he was the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, a bestseller that remains popular today.
November 24, 1963 – Lee Harvey Oswald, presumed assassin of President John F Kennedy, was shot and killed by Jack Ruby.
Birthday of 
Former First Lady Abigail Smith Adams was born on November 22, 1744. She was the wife of 
Birthday of George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) (November 22, 1819). English novelist famous for “Silas Marner”, “Mill on the Floss” and others.
“Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” was first heard on Eddie Cantor’s show on November 22, 1934. It became an instant hit with orders for 500,000 copies of sheet music and more than 30,000 records sold within 24 hours.
1963 – Death of