Merry Christmas

photo credit: Pamela Heywood (Secret Tenerife)

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. ~ Luke 2:1-7 (KJV)

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin; Grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen. ~ Collect for Christmas Day, 1928 Book of Common Prayer

Share some of my favorite Scriptures and prayers.

Scriptures & Prayers: PDF document of two pages to print on the front and back of business card forms (10 cards per letter-size page). One side of each card contains a Scripture and the other side contains a corresponding prayer from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

May you and your loved ones enjoy a blessed and joyous Christmas and may 2009 bring you happiness and health.

Christmas Memories

Karen Swim’s post I Gave at the Office started me thinking about past Christmases. Karen wrote about obligatory office gift-giving and offered several excellent alternatives. 

I’ve worked alone for a dozen years or so now so I don’t deal with these issues. But when I owned an interior landscape company, we always had a dinner for our employees and their families. We set up tables in the warehouse, so obviously it was a casual affair. Everyone brought a dish, and  we had a good time relaxing together and getting to know everyone’s spouses and kids.

We also gave the employees a chance to volunteer together to distribute toys to needy children. The Elf Louise Project  was started in 1969 by a college student who collected toys for 13 families. Now the charity delivers toys to more than 20,000 children in about 6,000 families with the help of nearly 5,000 volunteers.

Employees of our interior landscape company who wanted to participate signed up to join a company Elf Louise team. Our company usually fielded several 3-man teams at different times during the holiday season.

One person was assigned to be Santa—the organization provided a Santa suit. One was the driver who had to stay with the car at all times, and the third was the elf responsible for navigating and keeping track of which kid got what toy.

We were given safety warnings, such as never park in a position where we couldn’t make a fast getaway, because many of the homes we delivered toys to were in high-crime neighborhoods. One night the team I was with ended up on a dead-end street. As we were leaving, a carload of rough-looking teenagers pulled in front of us and screeched to a stop. All four doors were thrown open and what looked like a gang of youths jumped out and ran over to our car.

We sat there frantically trying to figure a way out. The boys ran up to the window, yelling, “Santa! Santa! Santa!” We gave them candy from Santa’s bag—Elf Louise provided lots of candy to give away to the kids not on Santa’s list who inevitably showed up when Santa arrived. All our candy that night went to the “gang” of tough-looking guys, who grinned and high-fived each other and said, “Thanks, Santa!” Then they jumped back in their car and drove away.

Experiences like that are worth more than any gifts we could exchange with coworkers.

That memory sparked a memory of another Santa experience.

photo credit: Philms

When I was a member of a local organization for women business owners, we wanted to do something for the Battered Women’s Shelter for Christmas. Our contact told us they had lots of gifts and parties already donated for Shelter residents, but they had just started a program to help women and their children transition to life on their own. Women who had been placed in jobs and moved into apartments needed Christmas presents for their children. We volunteered to host a party and give gifts to those families. That first year there were only 12 families with about 20 children in the program. A church near the Shelter provided space, and the Shelter gave us a list of families, including the names and ages of the children. We solicited donations for the gifts, and half a dozen of us planned the party.

One of our members had played Santa for other organizations and offered to wear her Santa suit to the party. As I was preparing to go to the party, on impulse I picked up my Polaroid camera. I didn’t have any film, so Santa and I stopped at a drugstore on the way to the church. It was quite a sight to see Santa walk through the store—kids materialized from everywhere and followed Santa like kids in the story followed the Pied Piper.

We got to the church, decorated the room, and set up refreshments. As the families arrived, they were quiet and reserved. The kids looked at Santa but shyly clung to their mothers. We had to encourage them to help themselves to cookies and punch, but once the kids had the refreshments in their hands, they grinned between bites and inched a little closer to Santa.

We told the children to sit on Santa’s lap to get their presents and have their picture taken. They hesitated, but the lure of all the gifts stacked beside Santa finally pulled them forward. The children sat on Santa’s lap and received their gifts. I took a picture of each child, then invited the mothers to join all their children for a family photo. They smiled and shook their heads. I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t want a picture until one mother shyly asked, “How much does it cost?” They thought we were going to make them pay for the pictures, and when we said they were free, they hurried over to stand beside Santa with their children. Several of the mothers had tears in their eyes and said, “This is the first picture I’ve ever had with my children.” 

We gave a gift to each mother and some food items for the families. When no one made any move to open the gifts, I said, “Don’t you want to open your presents?” The mothers gave me a puzzled look and one said, “Oh no, we want the kids to have the gifts on Christmas morning. These are the only presents they’ll get.”

We thought we were making the families’ Christmas a little brighter. In fact, we were giving them the only Christmas they would have. And my impulsive grabbing of my Polaroid camera resulted in one of the best gifts of all.

Through the years, the program grew to the point that the last time we hosted the party (shortly before the women business owners’ organization dissolved), there were about 300 families and 700 or 800 children. We had dozens of volunteers instead of the original half dozen, tons of donated food, and gifts for every child and every mother. I knew to invite the mothers and children to have their pictures taken for free, and we expected that the families would head to the bus stop with bags of unopened gifts so they would have presents to open on Christmas Day.

Participating in these annual parties made me appreciate anew my childhood. When I was growing up, we didn’t have many material goods, but we always had a joyous Christmas. My parents told me that when I was in the first grade or so, I begged for a dollhouse for Christmas. That dollhouse was far beyond Santa’s budget, and my parents felt so bad that they couldn’t give me what I wanted. They saved up and gave me the dolhouse the next Christmas. By that time, I was no longer interested and seldom played with it. I don’t remember any of that—obviously I wasn’t traumatized by being deprived of the dollhouse the year I wanted it so desperately, but it made such a deep impression on my parents that they mentioned it for years afterward.

Daddy always built our Christmas tree. He chopped down several soapbush trees on the farm. He used the largest and most shapely one as the base, then he filled in with branches from the others bushes to make a huge tree. Unlike traditional Christmas trees, it was almost round. Then he loaded it down with lights and decorations and dotted snow (made from whipped Ivory Snow soap) on the branches. I’ve never seen another tree that looked anything like Daddy’s Christmas trees. You can get a glimpse of it in this family photo of my parents and their grown children. Christmas meant lots of family, food, faith, and love.

Christmas is quieter for us now. My parents are gone, and the rest of the family is scattered. Jack and I will go to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve and have  dinner on Christmas Day with my sister and her friend at a local restaurant. The next day, we’ll all get together with my brother and his family from Phoenix, who will spend Christmas Day with my sister-in-law’s family.

There are fewer people than when my parents were alive, but we’ll still have plenty of food, faith, and love. We’ll still remember the reason for Christmas—to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, who came that we might have eternal life.

Merry Christmas!

Upside Down

Upside Down from Pace Hartfield on Vimeo.

Another Chance for Christmas Giving

In case you missed my post on Christmas giving, here’s another chance to drop something into the bright red kettle to support the great work of the Salvation Army.

Christmas Giving

As a writer, I’d love for you to give my novel Dream or Destiny to everyone on your Christmas list who enjoys mystery or romance novels. For other genres, I recommend books by my clients and books by authors who have visted my blog.

You may also want to give a gift that will give the recipient the power to change lives. A gift certificate from Kiva.org provides the funds for the recipient to make a loan to an entrepreneur in the developing world. An entrepreneur in the developed world might need a loan of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars to start or expand a business. An entrepreneur in a developing country may need less than a hundred dollars to start or grow a business that will lift them out of poverty. The recipient of your gift certificate can make a life-changing loan to the entrepreneur of their choice, and when that loan is repaid, use the funds to make another loan. The cycle can be repeated endlessly, making your gift of $25 or $100 priceless. I made my first Kiva loan as part of Blog Action Day: Poverty.

Another good idea: Charity Checks. You can order giving certificates that can be used to donate to any IRS-qualified charity in the US, and there are 800,000 qualified charities. You purchase the certificate and get the tax deduction. You give the certificate as a gift, and the recipient then determines what charity to donate to. Unlike donating to a specific charity in someone else’s name, with Charity Checks, you know the recipient will be happy with the charity that receives the gift.

Comment added after reading Karen Swim’s post Santa Cause or the Grinch who Stole your Present?: I would recommend a charitable donation as a gift only to people close to you who you know would be happy with this. We do this in my family, but I would never suggest a business do this for a client nor would I do it to someone with whom I hadn’t discussed the idea in advance. I wasn’t clear enough and hadn’t thought through the implications until Karen brought them to my attention. Now back to the original post …

This is the time of year to give beyond our immediate circle. The Salvation Army’s red kettles are a symbol of the spirit of Christmas giving as well as an important means of raising funds to help those in need. I don’t go out to the malls and stores to shop so I miss the chance to drop something into a bright red kettle manned by a smiling bellringer. This year, I decided to be an online bellringer.

Thanks to Jon Swanson at Levite Chronicles for the inspiration. I didn’t know that I could be a bellringer for my own Online Red Kettle. If you do your Christmas shopping online, you can drop something into an online kettle and help the Salvation Army brighten the lives of those who need help this year.

Christmas celebrates the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ who gave the ultimate gift of His life for our salvation. We can share a little of His love by our own giving to our loved ones and people we don’t know. May you enjoy a blessed season of peace on earth, goodwill toward men.

Merry Christmas!

For unto us a child is born,

unto us a son is given:

and the government shall be upon his shoulder:

and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,

The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6 (KJV)

Wishing you and yours a blessed Christmas and a joyous, healthy, and prosperous 2008!

Share some of my favorite Scriptures and prayers.

Scriptures & Prayers: PDF document of two letter-size pages, each with six Scriptures and corresponding prayers from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer side by side.

Scriptures & Prayers - Cards: PDF document of two pages to print on the front and back of business card forms (10 cards per letter-size page). One side of each card contains a Scripture and the other side contains a corresponding prayer from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

Advent

Today is the First Sunday in Advent, the beginning of a time of preparation for Christians that leads up to Christmas. Fr. Chip Harper All Saints Anglican Church, which is my parish, offers a short liturgy lesson about the meaning of Advent.

The liturgies during the Advent season focus on three Advents: the Advent of Jesus’ birth in a manger two thousand years ago, the Advent of the Lord in our own hearts and lives, and the Advent of the Second Coming at the end of time. The Bible teaches us to be ever-ready as we don’t know when the Lord will come. Advent is a time to prepare … to get ready.

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and busy-ness of the holiday season instead of focusing of the real meaning of the holy season. Adding special devotions … maybe using an Advent wreath … spending time with the Lord are all good ways to focus on what Christmas is really all about.

I’ve created Scripture/prayer cards that have a Bible verse on one side and a prayer on the other. You can download a PDF file and print the cards on your own computer printer. Reading one of the cards can create a brief moment of devotion in a busy day.

The download of the cards is my gift to you with the prayer that we both focus on the meaning of the season this Advent … and prepare for Christmas.