EDITOR'S LETTER

Renaissance man once referred to our December issue as the “Christmas number.” There was no reason not to. Our magazine was overtly non-secular in 1950. And Raymond Carlson's editor's letters often read like Scripture. One December he recounted the birth of Jesus. Another year he led with a biblical prayer. After Mr. Carlson's retirement in 1971, Joe Stacey, his successor, continued with the evangelism. The tone, however, began to change with our next editor, Tom Cooper, who still referred to “Christmas,” but with less emphasis. It was a change that disturbed Cathy Schaller of San Gabriel, California. “How can you call this a Christmas issue,” she wrote in a letter to the editor, “when the only things that differentiate it from any other month are the wreath on the front and the words ‘Season's Greetings’? The pictures in the latest issue have never been more beautiful. But without the underlying theme, which used to be present, it lacks substance and seems to us quite pagan.” No doubt, Mr. Cooper heard from several other disillusioned readers, which is what led to his response in the following issue. “We are a tourist orientated magazine,” he wrote in February 1977, “published for the sole purpose of encouraging tourism into and through Arizona. We are not a religious publication. In fact, whenever references to God or Jesus Christ appear on our pages we hear from those who believe that the mention of a God violates the mandate of separation of church and state. The U.S. Postal Service encounters this same problem: Some want religious scenes on Christmas stamps; others clearly object to a governmental agency dabbling in scenes associated with God or religion. You can't please everyone.” That's still true today. We can't make everyone happy. Not with every issue. Nevertheless, we're committed to at least respecting all of our readers regardless of their beliefs. And so, we see the snow-covered landscapes in our December portfolios as secular. Not the province of any one religion. However, we do hope the tranquility of what you'll see inside helps evoke the spirit of Christmas. That feeling of lightheartedness, love and good cheer. Of peace on Earth, human righteousness and decency.

Even in a world as polarized as ours, we can all relate to Bob Cratchit's high spirits on that wintry Christmas Eve, when he left behind his servant's desk and headed home to Camden Town in the foggy darkness. His pockets may have been empty, but his heart was filled with the joyful anticipation of his daughter coming home, eating Christmas pudding and shoveling chestnuts onto the fire. Lightheartedness. Love. Good cheer. The spirit of Christmas.

A century after Dickens' story was published, Lawrence Clark Powell, an American writer who's been described as a “veritable Renaissance man,” was living not far from Camden Town just on the other side of Hyde Park. In the throes of one particularly harsh London winter, he wrote about a Christmas gift from Arizona. In December 1971, an excerpt of that essay appeared in this magazine under the headline A Tribute to a Mere Magazine by a Great Man.

However, I thought someone should go upstairs and turn off the water and the sleet, and the snow and the cold. Even those lyrical outbursts by the BBC weather forecasters, those poems-inprose which made the foulest weather sound fair, were not enough; something more than 'bright intervals' was needed to warm my bones.

"Up to January, through summer's golden end and autumn's rainbow fall, I turned my back on the far-away Southwest, with no attacks of homesickness. Then one zero morning there fell through the mail-slot in the door something which swung my compass back to the Southwest, and caused the most intense longing for that dry and wrinkled land.

"It was the Christmas number of Arizona Highways [December 1950], with a splash of spidery poinsettias on the cover. A well-meaning friend, a retired Santa Fe railway official, had sent it as a gesture of affection. It made me long for home. London in winter had become a foggy desert, while Arizona's landscape, pictured in the magazine, was paradise, no less.

"Actually it was that brilliant number of the country's most colorful magazine that got me through London's worst winter since 1066. I used it as supplementary heat; not burning it, no rather by propping it open on the mantel and letting its pictures irradiate the room.

"The blossoming trees were my favorites palo verde, yellow against the blue sky; and the ironwood, lavender against purple; both standing transfigured in the midst of the stark landscape, symbols of what a little water can do when poured on the earth at the right time and place examples, too, of what a mere magazine can mean in a man's life.” Whether you live in London, Los Angeles or Lukachukai, we hope you make it home this holiday season, if only in your dreams. And whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or just a few days off from work, we thank you, sincerely, for spending another year with Arizona Highways.

During the first six months in London,” Mr. Powell wrote, “I flabbergasted the porters in the Chelsea apartment house by rushing outdoors hatless every time it rained, and just standing in the falling water. By January,

EXPERIENCE WILLIAMS GATEWAY TO THE GRAND CANYON AND CHRISTMAS! POLAR EXPRESS

November 8 - January 4

PARADE OF LIGHTS TREE LIGHTING

November 30

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