Category: Christmas

Come and See

by Elder Marvin J. Ashton

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but he was later identified as Jesus of Nazareth, the site of his early home. He was brought up in Nazareth, a small village in a hollow among the hills of the Sea of Galilee. Nazareth was a poor town void of wealth, without respected leadership, and without many residents. As young Jesus grew up and taught, people “were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power” (Luke 4:32).

Those who saw and heard Him were not only astonished, but frightened, bewildered, and amazed as well in His life and performances. They were inclined to talk among themselves about His unusual skills, conduct, and background.

Nathaniel, one of His disciples “said unto [Philip], Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see” (John 1:46). The answer in those days and the answer today is, If you would know Jesus, come and see.

The word come means to move to, to draw near, or to approach. To see is to perceive with the eyes or to gain knowledge or awareness of.

Is There a Santa Claus?

Dear Editor:

I am eight years old.  Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.  Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun it's so."  Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlan
115 West 95th Street
New York City

Virginia, your little friends are wrong.  They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age.  They do not believe except they see.  They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.  All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's are little.  In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.  He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.  Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus!  It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.  There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence.  We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight.  The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus!  You might as well not believe in fairies.  You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa coming down, what would that prove?  Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign there is no Santa Claus.  The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.  Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn?  Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there.  Nobody can conceive nor imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart.  Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, and romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond.  Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus!  Thank God he lives, and he lives forever.  A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Francis P. Church
an editorial from The New York Sun September 21, 1897

Christmas Day in the Morning

By Pearl S. Buck

He woke suddenly and completely. It was four o'clock, the hour at which his father had always called him to get up and help with the milking. Strange how the habits of his youth clung to him still! Fifty years ago, and his father had been dead for thirty years, and yet he waked at four o'clock in the morning. He had trained himself to turn over and go to sleep, but this morning it was Christmas, he did not try to sleep.

Why did he feel so awake tonight? He slipped back in time, as he did so easily nowadays. He was fifteen years old and still on his father's farm. He loved his father. He had not known it until one day a few days before Christmas, when he had overheard what his father was saying to his mother.

"Mary, I hate to call Rob in the mornings. He's growing so fast and he needs his sleep. If you could see how he sleeps when I go in to wake him up! I wish I could manage alone."

"Well, you can't, Adam." His mother's voice was brisk. "Besides, he isn't a child anymore. It's time he took his turn."

"Yes," his father said slowly. "But I sure do hate to wake him."

When he heard these words, something in him spoke: his father loved him! He had never thought of that before, taking for granted the tie of their blood. Neither his father nor his mother talked about loving their children--they had no time for such things. There was always so much to do on the farm.

Now that he knew his father loved him, there would be no loitering in the mornings and having to be called again. He got up after that, stumbling blindly in his sleep, and pulled on his clothes, his eyes shut, but he got up.

Here are ten Christmas trivia questions for you.  The answers may or may not surprise you.  I've included all of the answers in the post, but you'll need to click "more" to see them.

1) Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer made his first appearance in 1939, in a story that was written to:

A) Advertise a new brand of light-bulb
B) Be read on a Christmas radio broadcast
C) Entertain the author's sick daughter
D) Promote a department store

2) After Scrooge has reformed his life at the end of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", he proposes getting together with Bob Cratchit for some "smoking bishop", which was:

A) A fast variation of chess popular in Victorian London
B) A premium pipe tobacco
C) A hot spiced drink
D) A Christmas pudding, soaked in brandy and set alight

3) Most of us like to spend Christmas with our families, but sometimes we must be far away. Even then, most of us get to stay on the planet. Prior to the continuous occupation of the International Space Station in 2001, how many people actually spent Christmas Day in space?

A) None - mission planners have always worked around it
B) Just three - the Apollo-8 team
C) Twelve
D) Thirty-five

4) In the Ukraine, if you find a spider web in the house on Christmas morning it is believed to mean:

A) Good luck
B) Misfortune will strike in the coming year
C) The winter will be unusually cold
D) Your house needs cleaning!

5) America's official national Christmas tree is:

A) Displayed at the Rockefeller Center in New York
B) Brought from Canada and erected in Washington each year
C) Located in King's Canyon National Park in California
D) A Scotch pine

6) A modern Christmas custom borrowed from ancient Rome's New Year's celebrations is:

A) Putting up mistletoe to make a "kissing bough"
B) Decorating a tree
C) Displaying a wreath on the front door of one's house
D) Hanging stockings by the fireplace

7) The first instrument on which the carol "Silent Night" was played was:

A) A harp
B) A pipe organ
C) A guitar
D) A kazoo

8) Good King Wenceslas was king of which country?

A) Abyssinia
B) England
C) Bohemia
D) Gondor

9) The real St. Nicholas lived:

A) At the North Pole
B) On the island of Malta
C) In Turkey
D) In Holland

10) Believe it or not, one Indiana town is called:

A) Christmasville
B) Wenceslas
C) Noel
D) Santa Claus

Let's see how well you know your Christmas songs.  By now, you've been listening to Christmas music for two or three weeks, and if you're in a choir, you've been singing them for two or three months.

Each entry in the list below represents a Christmas song.  The letters in each entry are the first letters of the the words in the first line of a song.  You have to figure out what song it is.  For example, OCAYFJAT would be O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant.  So the song would be O Come All Ye Faithful.  Good luck and have fun!  (Oh, and I've disabled comments on this one to stop spoilers!  Look for the answers to be posted the day after Christmas)

1. HYAMLCLYHBL
2. TFNTADS
3. GRYMGLNYD
4. BWBRTGGNOWACTHTB
5. ICUAMCTGSOO
6. SNHNAICAIB
7. OTFDOCMTLGTM
8. DTHWBOHFLLLLLLLL
9. YBWOYBNC
10. JTTWTLHC
11. YKDADAPAVCACADAB
12. ISMKSCUTMLN
13. CSBSDIHS
14. HTHASGTTNBK
15. GGROBARWHFOHCE
16. OHNTSABS
17. AIWFCIMTFT
18. DTTSIAOHOS
19. SBSASUTTFM
20. WTKOOA
21. ITMWTOTY
22. IDOAWCJLTOIUTK
23. CROAOFJFNAYN
24. IBTLALLCEYG
25. OLTOBHSWSTL
26. SBRAYL
27. IBHFCYCCOM
28. WWYAMCWWYAMCWWAMCAAHNY
29. IHTBOCDTOFCP
30. IHABCWY
31. FTSWAJHS
32. JOSNLYETW
33. IWAHFCOAHWD
34. GKWLOOTFOS
35. UOTHRPOJGOSC
36. JBJBJBR
37. HHHHWTMBKRMYEVCT
38. JHTSBJRTTT
39. IRCSBICO
40. GCHABSTCRIT
41. CTTMPRPPP
42. AWHHOHSSOTP
43. HAHJCITBTOTY
44. AIAMNCFHB
45. STNWTTLLDYSWIS
46. OTWOIFBTFISD
47. OCTOCTHATLSV
48. LTBPOEALIBWM
49. YAMOMGYRAAH
50. WCITWLTROMLIS

The Tailor of Gloucester

by Beatrix Potter

In the time of swords and peri wigs and full-skirted coats with flowered lappets--when gentlemen wore ruffles, and gold-laced waistcoats of paduasoy and taffeta--there lived a tailor in Gloucester.

He sat in the window of a little shop in Westgate Street, cross-legged on a table from morning till dark.  All day long while the light lasted he sewed and snippetted, piecing out his satin, and pompadour, and lutestring; stuffs had strange names, and were very expensive in the days of the Tailor of Gloucester.

But although he sewed fine silk for his neighbours, he himself was very, very poor. He cut his coats without waste; according to his embroidered cloth, they were very small ends and snippets that lay about upon the table--"Too narrow breadths for nought--except waistcoats for mice," said the tailor.

One bitter cold day near Christmastime the tailor began to make a coat (a coat of cherry- coloured corded silk embroidered with pansies and roses) and a cream- coloured satin waistcoat for the Mayor of Gloucester.

The tailor worked and worked, and he talked to himself: "No breadth at all, and cut on the cross; it is no breadth at all; tippets for mice and ribbons for mobs! for mice!" said the Tailor of Gloucester.

Many people participate in NaBloPoMo in November.  I've thought about it in the past, but I never decided to join in, because blog posting, to me, is a time to just put down in writing what is happening in the moment, when, and IF, I feel like doing so.  Having the pressure of creating a new blog entry every day gives me writer's block like nothing else I have ever tried.  So in the end, I don't do it.

This year, though, I'm going to create twelve blogs for Christmas.  They likely won't have much to do with anything mentioned in the related song, but they will all have something to do with Christmas.  I may share some of my favorite Christmas stories, both religious and secular.  I may have some fun things for you to do.  I may create some posts myself, but most of them will likely be the work of others.

What I am hoping to do is to share with you a bit of Christmas cheer.

Starting tomorrow and continuing every day up to and including Christmas Day, I will post a new Christmas-related entry.

Merry Christmas from Mr. Me.