One Story Never Gets Old

We had our Christmas program at our little church tonight. First we had a Candlelight service, one of my favorite services of the year, but I missed half the service because I couldn't leave Mom's until my sister came. But I did get to see the kids act out the first Christmas with a little help from some of the adults. I'm thinking our wise men probably hadn't acted out a part in the Christmas play for many, many years, but as our preacher said Sunday "Wise men still seek Him."

One thing about church Christmas pageants, you never know what might happen next. I took advantage of that when I wrote a scene about a church pageant in my Hollyhill book, Summer of Joy. In the story, twin boys are playing sheep. When their mother worries about the boys wandering off or crawling under the pews, Miss Sally, who is in charge of the play, says there are shepherds to keep the sheep in place.  That's where we pick up the action in my book Summer of Joy.

  Of course the little shepherds tripping on their bathrobes and stumbling over their wooden staffs toward the pretend campfire weren't much older than the little lambs. Two of the little shepherds made it to the fire and sat down without a glance at the sheep milling around behind them. The other little shepherd, Jeremy, shoved at the towel that had slipped down over his eyes and fell right over top of one of the twins who was doing some kind of spinning sheep moves in the middle of the aisle with a full chorus of baas. Jeremy fell into the campfire. He jumped back as though the construction paper flames were real, and the towel fell off his head. The other two shepherds tried to help him put it back on, because it was a well known fact that nobody could be a shepherd without a towel on his head.

   Meanwhile the sheep, seeing their chance, took off crawling up the center aisle. One of the little shepherds looked around at the escaping sheep, put his hands on his hips, and announced, "I told Miss Sally we should've had cows instead of sheep."  

Kids and Christmas pageants are always good for a few smiles. Tonight at Goshen was no different with our Mary getting a sudden case of stage fright and retreating to the back room where she stayed the rest of the pageant. So our final manger scene lacked an important person - the mother of Jesus. Then the angel had some problems with her wings and must have decided flying was overrated since she yanked them off and threw them in the manger on top of Baby Jesus. Luckily the little shepherd grabbed them off before any harm was done. A smile a minute.

Many of you who have entered my giveaway have talked about Christmas programs and especially the Christmas Eve candlelight services being one of your favorite ways to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Here are a few of your comments. 

 

Judy B says  - I love attending Christmas Eve Candlelight services. With the lights in the sanctuary turned off and candles glowing with lighted Christmas trees in the background, soft music the only sound being made. I feel the spirit of God all around. It is so peaceful and stress free. It is like God is reassuring me that everything will be o.k., if I only put my complete faith and trust in Him. The tears silently flow down my face and I am one with God.

Kelli Jo says - Besides giving, what I love about Christmas time is all the activities that take place at my Church – including Midnight Mass!

Lois says - My favorite  thing about Christmas is going to Church on Christmas Eve with my family and then spending time with family on Christmas Day and celebrating Jesus' Birthday.

 

 Sandra says - Memories are another favorite thing that Christmas brings!  My grandmother never actually gave us things for Christmas, but she would have all the family together and have a huge feast!  And she was a wonderful cook.  She would have us read the Christmas story in the Bible.  We would take turns with all the different verses. 

And, our church used to have a live nativity.  When we were old enough, we would brave the cold and stand as still as possible on the church lawn dressed as shepherds, kings or whatever part we got that year.  I remember one year when we had a live goat, sheep and donkey.  The manger got a little noisy that year!

And, I remember one year I sang a solo of "O, Come All Ye Faithful" in the church choir.  My grandmother's friends told my mom that I was an angel.  She didn't exactly agree. 

I LOVE Christmas, and it's fun to think about Christmas past! 

                                  ********

My name is Annette and what I like best about Christmas is all the joy and the feeling that everyone knows everyone else, even if you don't and it is only for a short time. It shows that no matter what our differences are, we are still able to get along and be that one big universal  family and make sure that all of us have that hope, joy, love and that we have some peace versus none.

Thanks for stopping by during this busy time of the year. Hope you are enjoying the shared stories and feeling that hope and peace Annette talked about. If you haven't already entered my Christmas giveaway, you still can by leaving a comment here or sending me an e-mail from my website. What memories of joy do you have from Christmases past?

The Joy of Christmas Trees - New and Old

"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other." ~Burton Hill

Finally with a little help from my youngest grandkids, I got my tree decorated. Isn't that the way of it? The ones old enough to be real help stop wanting to help with things like this while the little ones who need a bit of extra supervision in their attempts to make the tree beautiful, love helping. Oh well, one broken ornament is a small price to pay for such willing helping hands. I do have to admit that some of the ornaments are bunched together on the lower limbs, but that's okay too. I've never been one to worry about having a perfect tree. 

When I was a kid, we went out and got a cedar tree out in the field. We continued that tradition for a long time after I married. Sometimes the kids and I would go tree hunting. More often, Darrell brought one in that he spotted in the fields. Those cedars smelled great, but dried out so fast and were very scratchy to decorate and even worse to undecorate. So a few years back, I got uptown and bought an artificial tree. Then I bought one of those lighted trees. It was really neat until all the lights started going out. Now it is loaded down with lights, some attached to the branches that won't work and others strung on over top them. It doesn't look too bad - from across the room. In the dark. If you're three. Could be time to go tree shopping again, huh?

Some of the stories readers have sent in when they were entering my Christmas giveaway have talked about the fun of decorating. Here is a story from Sharon about her Christmas that talks about going out to get that live tree.

I grew up in central Pennsylvania to a single mother ...  What I remember about the Christmas season was the fury of activity with mom buying gifts and hiding them, Grandma baking and preparing all she could beforehand and Pappy getting ready to chop down the tree and bring it home. I only went out with him a few times, because sometimes he went pretty far into the woods behind our house to find to right one. I think now that he may have already known where the next year's tree was but being a child I just thought he went out and chopped down the first tree he saw. After all this time had passed, it was Christmas Eve, our big celebration. That is when our tree was put up and decorated. Everyone came Christmas Eve, every year.  ... So Christmas Eve became much fun and visiting from cousins you didn't get to see very often. I guess I was about ten when I realized Christmas was even more special at our house than most, or so I thought. It was also my grandparents' anniversary. The day they wed and started keeping house to begin their family. 

My Grandma made her dress, crocheted a pale green dress that had a dark green velvet ribbon at the waist and tied at the back with long ties down the back.  She still had the dress, even though she had not worn it for so very long. I used to beg her to let me look at it! Then as years went by, I got to try it on. ... I would look in what mirrors we had there and just stare into it, thinking what they may have looked like that day.  ... After they married, which I think was the Justice of the Peace, they went to the movies, which was a big thing to do then. That would have been about 1927. 

 ... As I grew up to a teenager then into a young adult, their 50th Anniversary was coming around. My one uncle was still single at the time. He bought all kinds of seafood for the Christmas Eve that year. Grandma always made clam chowder, homemade cookies, sponge cake and homemade breads. I loved her white clam chowder and so did everyone else. But that year my uncle bought shrimp, oysters, crab meat.  Everyone from the neighborhood was invited. ... What a wonderful time everyone had, neighbors dropping by for a few hours, Aunts and Uncles and cousins stopping in, all staying long and into the night. That year the tree was decorated by not just family but by neighbors too. My mom was always in charge of the decorating of the tree and all the kids were her helpers. Of course the last thing to go on the tree was the star at the top.  

Christmas was always a big to do at our house. It has never stopped being that big celebration for me. As my children and grandchildren have grown and enlisted into the the military and moved to other parts of the country, I still keep Christmas special in my heart and wish my family love, hope, happiness and tell them what family means to me.

As I sit here and recall those times I cry a little. Remembering the little girl who would sneak peeks at her gifts when no one was around, the one who watched and helped Grandma make her famous bread and sponge cake and cookies. Sneaking a taste here and there, with Grandma smiling as I did it and scolding me at the same time.......the fun of having all sixteen cousins running around for one night. 

Hope you enjoyed Sharon's Christmas story. And isn't that one of the nicest things about Christmas? That most of us have some good memories to share. Thanks for reading. And thanks for sharing your memories or what you like about Christmas with me.