For our December Helping Hands event, AW chose to sponsor the Christmas Village Toy Store at the request of one of our visual designers. It is a suggestion that many AW employees embraced, as the excitement of children at Christmas far outweighs our own as adults.

The inspiration came in 2006 for The Christmas Village Toy Store, a collaborative effort among several area churches that is designed to empower and develop at-risk urban communities in Charlotte. The store itself preserves and promotes joy and dignity at Christmas by engaging a free market system, allowing shoppers to pay a discounted price for desired items rather than be forced to accept “charity.”

Both those who donate toys or volunteer their time and shoppers who purchase toys contribute to store profits that are reinvested into the local community through educational grants and scholarships. Because of this, even the shoppers at the Toy Store are “paying it forward” into their own communities.

Addison Whitney was able to donate several boxes and bags full of toys for children ranging in age from infant to teenager. There were dolls, mp3 players, blocks, books, bath accessories and much more. In addition to donating toys, several employees, along with their friends or spouses, volunteered their time to helping the Toy Store prepare and run the shopping events. We were represented as toy pricers and parking lot attendants.

We would like to say thank you to Warehouse 242 and the other Charlotte-area churches who are part of the Christmas Village Toy Store for allowing us the opportunity to give to such an amazing organization. We look forward to being part of the initiative in the future, whether as individuals or as a company.

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Is there any Christmas character more iconic than Santa Claus?  The belly o’ jelly, the tress-dressed face and the bright red suit with snowy fur all wrap up to create the jolliest man we know.

While you can buy Coke anytime and almost anywhere, my favorite holiday brand is Santa himself.  We can thank Coca-Cola for Mr. Claus as we know and love him today.  In 1931, artist Haddon Sundblom introduced us, via The Saturday Evening Post, to who has become our quintessential image of St. Nick.

Coke’s website explains, “For inspiration, Sundblom turned to Clement Clark Moore’s 1822 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (commonly called “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”). Moore’s description of St. Nick led to an image of Santa that was warm, friendly, pleasantly plump and human. For the next 33 years, Sundblom painted portraits of Santa that helped to create the modern image of Santa — an interpretation that today lives on in the minds of people of all ages, all over the world.”

So this year, instead of leaving milk out with your cookies this Friday night, you might leave a bottle of Coca-Cola.  Santa is sure to appreciate the caffeine kick; he’s got a lot of houses to hit, you know.

You can read all about Santa’s image and other Coke lore on Coca-Cola’s website.

Merry Christmas, y’all!

LONDON, Dec 6 (Reuters) – AstraZeneca’s new heart medicine Brilique — or Brilinta — won final clearance from EU regulators on Monday, putting it on track to compete with Plavix, the world’s second biggest-selling drug, next year.

AstraZeneca is relying on revenues from the new product to offset expiring patents on some of its best-selling medicines, such as heartburn treatment Nexium and Seroquel for schizophrenia.

The approval by the European Commission had been expected following a positive recommendation from experts at the European Medicines Agency in September.

AstraZeneca said that of the European markets that would start selling Brilique in 2011, the majority of launches would occur in the second half of the year due to pricing and reimbursement negotiations.

The drug is recommended for preventing dangerous blood clots in patients with serious chest pain or previous heart attacks.

It is a competitor for Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s top-seller Plavix, which had sales last year of more than $9.5 billion, and AstraZeneca will face a tough competitive marketplace, since Plavix is off patent in parts of Europe and loses U.S. patent protection in 2012.

In the United States, where the medicine will be sold as Brilinta, the Food and Drug Administration is due to decide on whether to approve it by Dec. 16. It was endorsed by a U.S. advisory panel in July, despite a perplexing lack of benefit seen among a North American sub-group of patients in a clinical trial that found it was superior to Plavix overall. (Reporting by Ben Hirschler, editing by Kate Kelland)