As we enter the new Christmas season, why not look back on past holidays in Sandusky?

What’s a holiday season without Christmas carols? The Firelands Chorus, marking its 50th anniversary this year, will be singing many holiday favorites when it performs at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Zion Lutheran Church, 503 Columbus Ave.

Santa Claus is pretty busy this month, but perhaps because Sandusky has such a rich Christmas tradition, he’s agreed again to put in regular appearances in downtown Sandusky.

A foundation in Connecticut has launched a Web site urging people to “redefine Christmas” by asking their friends and relatives to make a donation to a favorite charity rather than buying a gift.

I always try to take some time every Christmas to look at decorations on houses. Every day, I drive home on Cleveland Road, and my eyes are always drawn to the lights on the houses on Bauer.

My headline refers not to our nation as a whole, but to The Nation magazine, a left wing magazine and Web site that has named U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, one of its "Most Valuable Progressives of 2008."

Erie County has pinned much of its hopes for economic revival upon NASA Plum Brook Station, which is expected to expand its operations to support Constellation, NASA’s effort to develop a new generation of space rockets, the Ares, to replace the space shuttle and to send astronauts back to the Mo