robert gibs asked if president obama is still smoking. >> i have not seen or witnessed evidence of... smoking in probably, around... >> something is fishy about that video. that is your last call. thanks for joining us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow. we'll see a lot of pictures about haiti. glenn glenn hello, america. it is a good show, you know, when we start with heavy cream. i hate these. i hate these things. each year the same thing. i want to talk to you about

chris tonight. welcome to the program. each year the same thing with me i end up with a knife at christmas, opening up both ends of this. well ... this is going to be mediumy. now we take a little cream. all right. here is the deal. i want to talk to you about families. and about christmas. christmas is not about black friday or cyber monday. that is new. in fact, christmas wasn't officially celebrated here until 1873. and there is a blogger in his basement, mom, mom, i am busy and he is in i-underpants saying not 1873. whatever. in the 1870's we started really focusing on christmas. and when the country first

started it was an amazing gift would have been a book. this book, actually has an inscription in it from 1878. no, 1880. a christmas book. a book that somebody could read year round, "uncle tom's cabin," frederick douglas. and "life and times of frederick douglas." this. the history and life-and-death, virtues and exploits of general george washington. and abraham lincoln "a man of god." if you got this for christmas it would have been, without have been rip. rip. rich. christmas at beginning of our country, the founders thought it

was garish to celebrate and congress was in session on december 25th in the 1700's. it was garish to celebrate because it was too sacred of a holiday and now we catch out at wal-mart or go to the apple store for the latest gadget. christmas used to be a celebration of the family, families get together and make memories. my favorite memory of christmas, i think, with my family was the year my grandparents came up to our house. we would go do their house. we played monopoly. do you remember how it never ended? can this damn game end? it was designed for a different time when there was not television. and people had all night to play. and i remember because i helped my grandfather be the banker. and grandpa had a town of before

any madoff in him. and i remember going, no, grandpa and he was like, growling, and i remember the time with my family, and christmas no matter how many times i remember as a kid and i don't know if anyone remembers this, sitting and listening to my parents and grandparents talk and they told the same stories and we would laugh and it is in the dining roof at meal and we all sat there, and we would listen to the same stories, the same stories. that is how we learned who we were. and now everyone plugs into their games. or whatever else. and our children are not hearing the stories anymore. we have to tell the stories. and we have to find the things of value. you know? christmas used to be about gifts

that were from the heart. because people had time to actually make them. and they were also, presents were thinged that people needed. they were simple. most importantly, it was the, and the effort that want into the gift itself. this is a gift from my daughter and i will tell you about it a little later on in the program. and it is a great gift. it won't cost you anything but the price of the c.d. each christmas one of our traditions is to make, erin, you are not getting into my hot chocolate? >> it was going to burn. >> it is already made in the other room. they are not drinking it. this is television. this is television. now she wrecked a beautiful

tender story. put yourself back into a time you thought it would be beautiful and tender. the family tradition in my family as you can imagine is eating. and i make a hot chocolate and i made it one year and the first year the family went into a coma and then each year since that time my tradition because my kids insist is to make dad's hot chocolate and the recipe is quite easy. it is first we start with heavy cream and that's a problem because if you go outside and you make it with just heavy cream and hersheys if you get cold too fast you could congeal. so it is bad. but we put the chocolate bars in them and now we use light cream

or light cream and a little bit of whole milk, none of the woosy 2 percent, and you could probably put a whole stick of butter in there, too, but i have in the tried it yet. we do not lose weight during the holidays at our house. it is a tradition and we do it on christmas eve and christmas night and the entire week. but we make it and it is around and watch a christmas movie and we did have a chef make all of this for us. we will pass out some so you guys can have it, you may go into a coma but it will be a happy christmas coma. we have talked about the story on this program, the story of the tower of babel and the jewish word of the mortar in that tower was "materialism."

and that is what held the people together but it is also what allowed them to be destroyed and does anyone else find that amazing, that is what is happening to us? our materialism is holding us together and it is destroying us. christmas isn't about the stuff. we allow it to be, it will destroy us. tonight, i want to talk to you about the meaning of christmas but i also want to talk about some of my favorite things. they are not expense i. some have no monetary value. but what makes christmas the most memorable time of the year is being with our family and it's about benefiting and not receiving. but, today, it is about receiving, too, because you are on my favorite page episode. no, no, no, negotiation i

apologize. oprah, we can outdo you. you are supposed to cry. you are on our favorite things episode. wow, this audience sucks. everyone is going home with some of the stuff i will highlight today and, yet, there is a lot of food here. but i will highlight, put them up here because everyone will go home with a bag and there is cool stuff in it that is not necessarily expensive and things that i think you will enjoy, things that i like and things that can change the holiday tradition. little things like, well, survival bag. who doesn't need a christmas survival bag? we are going to die, everyone. ho ho. but you have ... i am going to get ... i thought you guys would be more excited.

there is a new car in each one of those. about "that big," but there is a new car my wife and i decided to get we have been blessed and we decided to get our family food storage because we could afford it and we know because each of our relatives said we know things go to hell we though where we are going, and i said where are you going you are not coming to my house. but, i would, it makes for, i know anyone will open it up and go, well, food storage. great. great. but it is probably the best gift that you can give anybody this year. if you are a grandparent you give your kids and grand kids, with inflation, things they need and the family would not have to worry about it or just a backpack of survival stuff and

you will be the geek in the family but there is nothing like if you are the geek in the family this is nothing like this. i love these. because it speaks everyone. nothing better. these are urban survival playing cards. you want to freak your family out? do you thing they think you are nuts now? on each card is a different scenario, okay? and it says, for instance, really, really, spooky ones ... feeding your infants and young children. emergency bullet proof barriers. 12" to 18" of sand and gravel will stop small aways fire. you suggest to everyone, let's

play some cards. it's the christmas holiday. and they start reading and they go, my gosh, but you learn some handy things. urban survival playing cards and it comes up with bartering and negotiating in post disaster survival situation. and the accompanying book that does not have a single card game in it. which i would think if you are down in the fallout shelter you may want a couple of different card gapes to play seeing you have the cards. i want to spend a second on books. this is, i just went to, i took the kids to see the new "narnia." it is fan tass tick. better than the first. i think so. on par with the first if not better than the first. really, really good. my kids are 21 and 19 and 6 and

4. . we had fun. the "narnia," which i read with my older kids when they were young and i started younger with my son and we are reading the first one and it is fantastic. and it really is just about the creation of the earth and adam and eve and everyone else, and disguised so dopes like me and others cannot figure it out. did you see what leam said, about the lion, and this is c.s. lewis, a great christian author, and the star is jesus and it is about jesus, in an analogy of christ. and leam said, last week, he

could be biew -- biew -- buddah or mohammed and he says there is another name for me in your world, and it is a talking lion saying this, and my son looked at me and he is six, and he started watching the movie and we had dinner and he said what is his name in lucy's world and i said what do you think he died for someone else's son and rose again, what do you think? and he said "jesus." and i said if you are leam, then it would be buddah. a tremendous, tremendous series, and there is nothing -- when i was growing up, i didn't read a lot. here is the guy in the underparents again, surprise,

surprise, glenn beck did not read at a kid. we worked, in my father's bakery and we did not read a lot. the first book i read for any enjoyment was sherlock holmes when i was 18. loved it. and started to read novels. and when you give someone a book you do not give them a pound of paper and ink and glue, you give them a whole new life, a new adventure. my kids, i started reeling to them when they were very, very young, and, they have a real appreciation for reading and there is nothing, nothing, nothing, like that. the narnia series, is fantastic.

wait, you did not applaud for the playing cards. if you have not seen it, we are sending you out to see the movie "narnia," which is fantastic and while we are here on books, let me give you a few books. first of all, i did not finish this, and i am 20 pages from the end, and this is spooky. this is his best thriller yet, same can be said for "american assassin," have you read this? unbelievable. great book. these are the traditional if you don't have these three books, please, get them, "5,000 year leap," "the real george washington," and the washington is a must. and "winners never cheat," by my good friend.

has anyone read this book yet? this book is, this will make you believe in the free market system again. this will show you this is what we are looking if life. we are lacking real examples. that is what george washington was about and that is why the progressive movement had to destroy our founders because we believed in them. we believe that it could be done. we believe that men could be decent. and we have destroyed all of our heroes. destroyed them all. and, so, no one has ever really been that way, it is not really like that, it is hollywood. i believe in bedford falls, i believe in "it's a wonderful life," and "smith goes to washington," i believe in those people. they existed then and they exist now. i don't think norman rockwell was the best painter but he saw

the best in people. this is today, a man who has lived his life with ethics and it is important to share it with each other. we will get back to some of the other things that can change your life and some of the things that are special about christmas.

♪ fare thee well ♪ farewell ♪ mr. gloom be on your way ♪ ♪ though you haven't any money you can still be bright and sunny ♪ ♪ sing polly wolly doodle all the day ♪

♪ hah

>> welcome back to my favorite thing. these are different ideas you can give for christmas. i cannot say because we are a news program i am not supposed to say would makes these things so i put them out on glenn glennbeck.com, the best coast, ever, ever made. see why my families loves me? is that unbelievable? that is great, isn't it? my family loves me. they give

me that. my wife says, these are the people who want you to die. and i said we are all going to die soon, anyway. i might as well go out with candy if -- in my wife. did you know when dr. adkins died after he fell down the stairs on his head the last thing i know he thought of, why didn't i eat that cake? and i love this book. he was supposed to be here and he sends regrets but he sent each of you cup cupcakes. i have eaten them all but you can share that. and a couple of other books

because books play such an important, which camera do we have? books play an important role in my life. and since it is my show ... i want to, i urge you to buy books. when you can, original sources, if you can go to a store and they are not expensive. they are not expensive. if you can go to a store, looking for a history book, try to get something prior to 1920. they are not expensive. some of these are like $5. you can go buy them, one you get the progressive movement in it, it is distorted, a history book prior to 1955 or 1960 is as far, when you pass that point, it

becomes, "and karl marx isn't so bad." and there are other books, this is a printing of "mien," and i made it for my children and we decided to print, i don't know, 25,000 copies and when this is gone it is gone but this is for my children, the 8/28 book, a script book i made for my children and it is my week of preparing 8/28 and it is all the behind the scenes stuff and my notes to my children, i love this picture, these two pictures, this is me and my wife, back stage, right before i went on, and this is me and my son. but you will each get a copy of this. and that's available, that's

available at glennbeck.com, and if you don't have, and these are signed by the author, too, and this is something, $7.95, and this book will change your christmases. if you buy this book and read it as a family, it is called the "christmas jar," if you read this as a family over several nights, your perspective on christmas will change and you will start a new tradition we started in my family "the christmas jar," and it was easy in my family because we have the mason jars from canning and what you do, you each have a mason jar and you put your change in it all year round and keep filling the mason jars and then at the end of the year at christmas you take and you

deliver these jars and you will be surprised how much change you accumulate over the year and you take the jars and you leave them with your kids. we go out in the middle of the night and it is fantastic, because when the kids were really little, man they loved it. you go out in the middle of the night and especially if you have boys, they are like spies and they go out and their christmas undercover guys and they deliver without a note on who it is from and you put it on the too step and we usually do it a few days before christmas and it helps, i know it is not a lot, but, if you are in a position where you can add a few dollars to the change on top of it, it can actually change people's holiday. the first year we did this, it was a family in church and they

really had a hard time and the father got up on christmas and he started to cry and he talked about how somebody, he didn't know who, had left some stuff and it was an answer to a prayer for he and his wife and the kids just beamed. just beamed. it will help you teach the kids the real meaning of christmas and this is also another book that the author wrote, "christmas miracle," and it's a fantastic story and a great tradition to start with your family. and when we come back a couple of things i will schaefer -- share with you and i would like the audience to share things they do that do not cost anything that kind of maybe they remember as kids, that they still carry on, today, and one

of the toughest christmases that i had and how it ended and how it is one of the real, has become a real bright spot in our family and it started out at the christmas that was the toughest

glenn beck.

>>glenn: all right. oprah gives her audience cars and stuff, but they got books and chalk! and this. and the best rice pudding, i think, that is available and i cannot say the name of it. but you can go to glennbeck.com and find out what the name might be. but, also, we went through the books, we went through, of course, this is available and i want to tell you that one of the other things my family and i, we love to do, is we like to go and

see, my daughter she had to pull almost all of my teeth out to get me to go, and she took me to an opera in new york and has anyone gone to an oprah ever before? you say this with smiles on your face, i don't believe you have ever gone. it's a nightmare. nightmare. everything you thought it would be like, it is like that, times ten. a night pair. who is moaning? who is moaning? get out. get out. get out. my daughters and i we go because when they were very young i would take them to different plays and we try to explain different things to them and show different things and get different experiences some of which they hated and others and

now dad takes them to a different show so they pick a show. i don't know if anyone has seen this "billy elliot," unbelievable. warning, they trash margaret thasher and it is like you don't foe what you are talking about but the great thing is, there are hidden conservatives in the cast. yes. so we will send all of you to "billy elliot." there is a kid in the play that melts your eyes, you bring your kids there and show the talent, and if you apply yourself, what you are capable of doing, it is unbelievable. i want to show you this is a gift that my daughter gave me and it is not christmas. i was having a tough time and

she called me up one day and she said, dad, how are you and i said i am having a tough week, and she said, well, can i come home with you this weekend and i said "sure." so i picked her up and she gave me a c.d. and she said, dad, it's songs i not you should hear and they are words that make me think of you or make me think there are words you need to hear and it was one of the kindest things anyone has done because i knew she took the time to do it. she didn't go to a store and buy it. a friend of mine told me, i told him that story and he said you know what i god one -- got one

year my daughters got together and made a c.d. and each them said and they recorded it before the song, dad, i picked this song because it reminds me of this particular time in our life when you did x, y or z and they played the song and he said when i am down, when i am feeling like i have not done my job or the world is upside down i pop this c.d. in and the world is right. this is a geft that you can give that is, it costs nothing. costs nothing. and you can really, truly affect somebody's world. i highly recommend that. and i want to show you something else. when i was at the bottom of the barrel and i bottomed out and i was trying to sober up, i am a recovering alcoholic, and this

was about 1995 and it was the first year i lot my family and i was living at some loser bachelor apartment, and only guys that lived in the apartment complex were guys, all divorced men, like, well, loser, too, right? and i could not afford christmas for my kids. and it was also the year that my second oldest daughter, the magic was wearing off and she didn't believe in santa. and she asked santa for one thing, only, and i ask you to go with me on this story. she asked for one thing from santa and she didn't tell her mom or dad but wrote it herself and i said we have to write a letter and i said what did you ask santa and i said that would

be between me and santa, right, dad? and it was and on christmas they came to the tree and she had toys and everything else and there wasn't the one thing that she really wanted, and sheen whatted one of santa's sleigh bells and fortunately it had snowed the night before and i realized that santa had not, had probably put it in his pocket and home was going into the chimney and it probably fell out of his pocket so the next day we would have to go look because it was very snowy that day and we would have to go and i would come back theness morning and check around outside and seven through the snow and then, when we went out the next day she found the snow, the sleigh bell and it happened to be, vicingly, right where dad said it probably

would be. and i had it framed for her last year and there if you are watching at home is an actual sleigh bell from santa. there it is. there. and i wrote on the back which is her favorite part, the story of the sleigh bell. it doesn't take much, sometimes,

>>glenn: does anyone remember this album from andy williams? when i was a kid, remember the turn table record player, a big huge console stereo the size of a biew in? and my mom would put on eight albums on the top, and we could not figure out why the records sounded scratchy. they would fall down on the other one, turn, and last year, i got a chance to meet and talk to andy williams. and i told him about how meaning ful this album was to me and, in particular, the song

"little altar boy," it was my mother's favorite song. a song about how she needs the middle boy to say a prayer and tell the lord she will change and she doesn't feel worthy to approach him anymore and that's the biggest lie about christmas that we would not be worthy to approach anymore but i wanted to include a few of, a couple of c.d.'s i love and john rich, "son of a preacher's man expoirks do you know michael buble, all the ladies are like "oh, yes," and the guys are like that son of a ... i think he is the best performer on stage, ever, and i know michael fairly well, and he got into a fight in canada over me saying somebody,

that sounded wrong, didn't it? sorry, michael. he was in canada at a hockey game and someone said i cannot plaintiff you were with glenn beck and he was like, back off, i am canadian and got into a hockey fight and i appreciate that. he is a decent, decent guy and someone would still is experiencing the joy of what he does. if this isn't the case of you can make something, this was made by a viewer of ours, and i am not sure if it was given as a nice heartfelt thing or mocking me, i am in the sure, but a tissue cozy and i want to go to the audience, christine, you received a pretty unbelievable gift. >>guest: 12 years ago i received a heart transplant. and holiday is very important

for me now, i have life and i am glad to be with my family and my sister flew in from san diego to be to the show and i live on east coast. i am from jamaica. >>glenn: what happened to your heart? >>guest: i have lupus and it attacked my heart and liver and i had congestive heart failure at 25 and i was sick at 17 and they took out my spleen and glad blader and they put me on drugs and i weighed 210 pounds and i face was bloated and then my heart and liver were attacked and i got stones in my liver ducts and they tried to operate and take out the stones and my heart got weak are and weaker and i was in i.c.u. for 11 weeks

waiting on a double transplants and october 24th, 1998, and i looked at my parents, my father went to the synagogue, to pray, and he came back up and it was 5:15 and i looked at my parents and i said i cannot take this anymore and i was on dialysis and i gave up hope because i wanted to live so much but nothing was happening and i was sicker and sicker and i could not breathe, and i could not fool my heart and that evening on the 24th of october they called and said i was transplanted and i went from knowing i was going to die to knowing i was going to live and my surgeon came in to the room and my cardiologist and prayed with me and we thanked my donor family in our prayers for what they were going through, probably a horrible time and they donated life to me.

and i went in to surgery and i said to my parents i will see you soon and 12 hours later i woke up they took the breathing tube out six hours after and from that day i have never looked back and i did the new york city marathon on my third anniversary. >>glenn: everything, give a

>>glenn: and another book that is thought of but not necessarily the family book, about military who have members in the military now. do you have someone in the military? >> my brother. he has been away four years. >>guest: my brother-in-law, daniel, a marine and he is home now. he goes back out next year. >>guest: nephew in afghanistan >>glenn: how long? >>guest: several months. and in the reserve for over a year or two.

>>glenn: who do you know in the military? >>guest: my son two tours. >>glenn: how long? >>guest: home now. >>glenn: we are concerned about soup kitchens and i will be in ohio and we are trying to help a town out and get back on their feet and it is not, we are going to get more from them than they give to them, an amazing town that is started a prayer room for the whole town right in the center of town, they have the churches, all 34 of them, and they are switching off so there is someone there at least one person, 24 hours a day, seven day as week praying for people in town. and the soup kitchen this accident take anything from the state or federal government and they lay their shelves -- hand

on the shelves, and there are 250 meal as day or families, a powerful for not having food and they lay their hands down and they are like, god, we are your children, we need hope here, we need help. when we think of our troops we think of the guys over there in battle right new but we think of their families and the best way we can support our troops is to make sure they know they don't have to worry about their children and their families here, please, for a year adopt a military family and make sure they are okay. god bless.