patching...
Welcome back, Patch Blogger!

Christmas 2012

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Recycle Your Trees After the Holidays

The trees will be turned into mulch.

When the egg nog is gone and the gifts are unwrapped, make sure to recycle your Christmas tree with the county. The Prince George’s County Department of Environmental Resources’ (DER) Waste Management Division will provide County residents with Christmas tree collection and drop-off services for recycling of their live Christmas trees, at no charge, beginning Dec. 26 and continuing through Feb. 1, 2013 Residents should put live, undecorated Christmas trees at the curb before 6:30 a.m. on their regularly scheduled collection day. Residents may also bring their undecorated tree, at no charge, to the Prince George’s County Yard Waste Composting Facility located at 6601 Southeast Crain Highway in Upper Marlboro, Monday through Friday from 7:30…

Friday, December 21, 2012

NASA Finds Holiday Ornament Nebula

Planetary nebula called NGC 5189 that looks a lot like a glass-blown holiday ornament.

Do they celebrate the holidays in space? Looks like it. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a nearby planetary nebula called NGC 5189 that looks a lot like a glass-blown holiday ornament with a glowing ribbon entwined.  

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Share Your Elf on the Shelf Hiding Spots: What Has that Elf Been Up To?

Our Patch Elf on the Shelf has gotten ahold of our computer and now wants to know what his buddy elves are up to. Share your photos here!

  Hi friends! I'm the Patch Elf on the Shelf. Call me Patchy. I've heard about more of my friends hanging around the area lately, and I wondered what they were up to. Could their families post pictures here on Patch to show me? I'd love to catch up with them. We all go back to Santa on Christmas Eve, but in the meantime, we'll be watching you! Cheers, Patchy the Elf Add your photo by clicking on the green "Upload Photos and Videos" icon.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Brentwood Man Displays Christmas Charity

Last years display contained over 16,000 lights.

If it weren't for a feral cat named Wiggles that wandered to Jason Keirns house three years ago, Alley Cat Rescue in Brentwood may not have the holiday support of donated blankets, cat food and toys. Starting next week, Keirns house in the 3400 block of 41st Avenue, will be lit up with a holiday display and a spot for people to drop off supplies to be donated to the cat rescue. According to Keirn, he's outside accepting donations most of the day and evening. Keirns fell in love with cats when he brought Wiggles into his home and now has several other rescued cats. To get an idea of the size of the display, last year Keirns used 14,600 lights. And last year alone he collected over 250 cans of cat food, four bags of blankets, four cat …

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Police and Children Team Up in Local Christmas Shopping Spree

Hyattsville, Laurel, UMd, Greenbelt, Bowie and a host of local law enforcement officers pitch in to make sure underprivileged children aren't forgotten on Christmas.

Even grown police officers can cry as evidenced by a local Christmas shopping program for underprivileged kids. Capt. Carl DeWalt with the Laurel Police Department couldn't keep the tears from falling when he shared his story about a boy who wanted to buy boots at Christmas, according to Hyattsville Police Sgt. Michael Rudinski, who started the program Operation Santa With a Badge. It was the captain's first time in the program, and he picked a boy from Laurel Elementary to go shopping with, DeWalt recounted. Once at the mall, the boy immediately went to buy two gifts for a newborn that DeWalt recalls may have been his niece. DeWalt kept telling him he only had $100 to work with and gave him updates on how much he had left, but next the …

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

The 10 Least Liked Holiday Songs: What's Yours?

From singing dogs to a philandering Santa Claus, these recordings came in last place in a recent survey.

  Odds are there's at least one Christmas recording filling the airwaves each December which you absolutely, positively cannot stand. Maybe it's something about the vocalist. Maybe the song brings up less than cheerful memories. Maybe the carol itself is just plain awful. Whatever the reason, you're not alone. Edison Research, a company specializing in marketing and polling, has published a list of least liked holiday songs for 2012. To compile its rankings, the company polled a group of 200 women ages 30-49 "who said they liked or loved hearing Christmas music on the radio." (The sample may be somewhat unrepresentative of the broader population, but we're willing to bet a few of these recordings would show up on a great many "least …

Got a Hot Tip?