Dear Father,

As you know, I am celebrating my Birthday with the host who invited me this year. I rejoiced at the opportunity and looked forward to spending the Holidays with them. However, these people are really quite strange. They really have not paid much attention to me at all since my arrival.

There is much talk about “Chris”, a fellow they call Kris Kringle or Santa Claus. Interestingly enough in their party in honor of me, guess who they featured as the Guest of Honor? This “Chris” fellow! Can you believe it? And for most of the past few weeks all I have heard is “Have you seen Chris yet?” and “What is Chris bringing you for Christmas?” Besides, I’ve seen so many pictures and figures of Chris on housetops, doors, lawns, sweatshirts, cards and etc. It makes me wonder who they really love. All things considered, it seems more of a party about Chris that about Christ.

And there is the big emphasis on presents! Not my “presence” mind you, but presents for their family and friends. Considering how much some of them are spending, it looks like we don’t rank very high in comparison. Some of them will spend more just for Christmas than they give to us all year.

What really saddens me is that so many will “celebrate” Christmas and never even know I’m here – they might mention me, but not know me- Bow their heads, but not worship as the wise men did, give but not love; pray but not believe; relax in their homes, but not rest in your hands; gather around their live trees, but never gather around the tree of life. IN fact, this supposed party for me reminds me of some of their Christmas trees, bright, fancy and artificial.

Thankfully, there are some who truly celebrate. It seems oddly refreshing when someone at my party gets more excited about me than the games, gifts and guests. I can’t wait to get back home and bring these folks home with me. We’ll have a real Christmas party then!

Much love, Jesus

Source: Unknown

Christmas Collection
Games and Activities helping youth discover the Reason for the Season.Get more than 200 creative ideas for planning a Youth Christmas celebration or Christmas Party party. You can immediately download my best Christmas Icebreakers, games, illustrations, Christmas activity ideas AND MUCH MORE in a useful ebook!
=> Tell me more about the Christmas Collection

If you saddled your six-legged droozle and rode
Toward the north, at a gallop, until you hit snow,
(And we all know a six-legged droozle can scoot
At one hundred and twenty when you give it the boot)
Anyway, on your droozle, you’d finally arrive
At a hamlet called Nazareth–this town has survived
Since the time that the Romans ruled everyone’s lives.
In those days Joe was bummed, marriage prospects seemed dim,
’Cause his Mary was PG, though–he knew–not by him.
But a dream and an angel cured him of his fears
So that even in distant Faloop, in Algiers,
Glad tidings were heard there–the best news in years.

REFRAIN
From Yreka, Poughkeepsie, and Kalamazoo,
To Nome, East McKeesport, and far Katmandu–
Bring in Noel and yuletide and cheer
And see how the Light of the world draws near!
So let’s greet the Christ child–no humbug, no bah,
But lift up your glasses with an al-le-lu-ia!

So things were patched up between Mary and Joe
(Though the way neighbors talked still made them feel low)
But it just didn’t matter to either of them,
’Cause the tax man had called them to Beth-eh-le-hem.
Joe hoisted up Mary on his donkey named Snout
(Who took a whole fortnight to travel the route
That a droozle could make in an hour or two)
Which explains Joe and Mary’s slight rooming snafu.
Yet even in distant Shabingo-Laneer,
Glad tidings were heard there–the best news in years!

REFRAIN

Meanwhile, in an overplushed palace of marble,
All quarried by slaves in Fandango-Goobarble
(Who chip on the white stone with hammers ball peen
While their bosses talk only in Powerpoint screens)
In that grand marble palace sat Herod the Great,
Sipping decaf espresso la mocha latté.
He hoodwinked the magi to spy unawares,
Who returned to the trail toward the babe in Pampers.
So even in downtown Chicago, at Sears,
Glad tidings were heard there–the best news in years!

REFRAIN

The rest of the story you’ve known for a while,
How the tyke in his Pampers soon left for the Nile.
He then came back home, with his folks and a tan,
And grew up to redeem every woman and man.
So that even in Thessalonica’s frontier,
Glad tidings were heard there–the best news in years!

REFRAIN

Source: Unknown
copyright 1999 Tim McLaughlin

Christmas Collection
Games and Activities helping youth discover the Reason for the Season.Get more than 200 creative ideas for planning a Youth Christmas celebration or Christmas Party party. You can immediately download my best Christmas Icebreakers, games, illustrations, Christmas activity ideas AND MUCH MORE in a useful ebook!
=> Tell me more about the Christmas Collection

While the use of holly is rooted in pagan lore, many Christian legends have developed over the centuries to the point that it is now linked with Christmas. In some parts of Britain holly was formerly referred to merely as Christmas, and in pre-Victorian times ‘Christmas trees’ meant holly bushes. Even so, “Decking the Halls with Boughs of Holly” is an ancient custom several thousand years old. In fact, the ancient Romans, Greeks, Chinese and Druids all decorated their homes with this plant.

Today, the evergreen holly symbolises eternal life and is associated with Jesus Christ. The bright red berries represent the drops of blood He shed on the cross; their color also represented the burning love for God present in the hearts of the faithful. The prickly leaves remind us of the crown of thorns the Roman soldiers placed on Jesus Christ’s head.

Christian legend says one winter night, the holly miraculously grew leaves out of season in order to hide the Holy Family from Herod’s soldiers and it has been an evergreen as a token of Christ’s gratitude ever since.

Another legend about this Christmas plant says that a little orphan boy was living with the shepherds when the angels came to announce the birth of the newborn king. Having no gift for the baby Jesus, the child wove a crown of holly branches for its head. But when he lay it before Christ, he became ashamed of it’s poverty and began to cry. Miraculously, Jesus touched the crown and it began to sparkle while the orphan’s tears turned into beautiful scarlet berries.

Some legends say that Christ’s cross was made from holly because the rest of the trees of the forest refused to be defiled by being used for the cross. In refusal they supposedly splintered into tiny fragments at the touch of an axe, but holly allowed itself to be cut. While we associate it with Christmas today, early pictures of the saints have included the presence of holly to indicate the saints were reflecting upon Christ’s crucifixion. In fact, the word “holly”–is believed by many scholars to be a corruption of the words “holy tree”

In Germany, holly is called Christdorn in memory of Christ’s crown of thorns. According to legend, the holly’s branches were woven into a painful crown and placed on Christ’s head while the soldiers mocked him saying, “Hail, King of the Jews.” The holly’s berries used to be white but Christ’s blood left them with a permanent crimson stain.

Some British farmers put holly on their bee hives, stemming from a legend that bees hummed in honor of the Christ child on Christmas.

Scripture
(Matthew 27:29) When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

Christmas Collection
Games and Activities helping youth discover the Reason for the Season.

Get more than 200 creative ideas for planning a Youth Christmas celebration or Christmas Party party. You can immediately download my best Christmas Icebreakers, games, illustrations, Christmas activity ideas AND MUCH MORE in a useful ebook!

=> Tell me more about the Christmas Collection