My color for date and blog title are #dfc9b6
I changed code in html - search for BLB - so that the page title wouldn't show up on static pages.
I found the code for doing 2017 message here http://mattdanner.net/two-column-lists-using-html/
Update: 12/24/22
I don't remember how I set up this blog, but for the new year the prior year needs to be copied to a new page called prior year Holiday Message (ex. 2021 Holiday Message) and the new message copied into the page called main. Or else create the new message twice but only activate current.
I no longer remember how I changed html as mentioned above but I found it in Customize theme html