Special Christmas Day Edition

Luke 2:1-20 (King James Version)

The Christmas Story

Luke 2

1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4 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:)

5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7 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.

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

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The History Channel

The History of Christmas

Each year, during the month of December, millions of homes across America are decorated with Christmas trees and fairy lights.

But how much do you really know about this festive holiday? Explore our site to find out the true history!

Start: The Real Story of Christmas…

Click here to read entire story

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greatcommission.com

Israel & Jerusalem Photo Album

See Bethlehem - Byzantine Church of the Nativity, near the birthplace of Jesus and many other great photos!

A fantastic resource!

Click here to View these terrific photos ____________________________________________________________________________________

StarOfBethlehem.Net

What Was The Star Of Bethlehem?

THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM FASCINATES. For millennia, believers, scoffers and the curious have wondered at the Biblical account of the Star. The Bible recounts unusual, or even impossible astronomical events at Christ’s birth. For many doubters, the account of the Star is easily dismissed as myth. For many believers, it’s a mystery accepted on faith. But what happens if we combine current historical scholarship, astronomical fact and an open mind? Judge for yourself…

Click here to read entire story _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CWA

The Real Saint Nick

Given the decision-making power of Santa Claus on the matter of gifts, my children make sure they leave Mr. Claus some seriously good cookies on Christmas Eve. However, most children don’t know that there is much more to the real Saint Nick than toys and cookies. In addition to being generous, the jolly fellow could easily be considered the patron saint of purity.

Recently looking into the legend of Saint Nick, I learned that Saint Nicholas lived early in the fourth century in what is now Turkey. He was orphaned as a young boy but left with substantial financial means by his parents. He used this inheritance to benefit others, especially children. Nicholas became the Bishop of Myra in Turkey and played an important leadership role in the church. Called the Wonderworker, he was well-known for his generosity to children, hence his association with the legend of Santa Claus. The story of a benevolent soul who gave gifts to children is a part of many cultures with many names. Saint Nick as another name for Santa Claus persists to this day…

Click here to read entire story

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byrum.org

The Origin of the Twelve Days of Christmas?

You’re all familiar with the Christmas song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas” I think. To most it’s a delightful nonsense rhyme set to music. But it had a quite serious purpose when it was written.

It is a good deal more than just a repetitious melody with pretty phrases and a list of strange gifts.

Catholics in England during the period 1558 to 1829, when Parliament finally emancipated Catholics in England, were prohibited from ANY practice of their faith by law - private OR public. It was a crime to BE a Catholic.

“The Twelve Days of Christmas” was written in England as one of the “catechism songs” to help young Catholics learn the tenets of their faith - a memory aid, when to be caught with anything in *writing* indicating adherence to the Catholic faith could not only get you imprisoned, it could get you hanged, or shortened by a head - or hanged, drawn and quartered, a rather peculiar and ghastly punishment I’m not aware was ever practiced anywhere else. Hanging, drawing and quartering involved hanging a person by the neck until they had almost, but not quite, suffocated to death; then the party was taken down from the gallows, and disembowelled while still alive; and while the entrails were still lying on the street, where the executioners stomped all over them, the victim was tied to four large farm horses, and literally torn into five parts - one to each limb and the remaining torso….

Click here to read entire story

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WorldNetDaily

Are Christmas trees pagan?

Exclusive: Gary DeMar on how Christians should view holiday symbolOne group of Christians is trying to keep the name “Christmas tree” rather than the non-descript “Holiday tree,” while a small minority of Christians wants to say good riddance to the very idea of Christmas trees because their origin is pagan. Who’s right?…

Click here to read entire story

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LifeSiteNewsThe Origin of Silent Night - A Christmas Carol is Born

For 22 years I looked after the spiritual needs of senior citizen homes. Volunteers helped. Among them was Anna Cairnduf, a lady who hails from a mountain town in Austria. She’s the grand niece of Father Joseph Mohr, the writer of the Christmas carol “Silent Night” which for a long time was ignored. Why?

Great music is expected from great cities and great Cathedrals but hardly from a poor, cold, drafty little mountain church, where a few days before Christmas in 1818, a hungry mouse chewed through the bellows of the old organ, silencing it. Oh no! No music for Christmas…

Click here to read entire story

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by Bill Egan, Christmas Historian

More On Silent Night

The Song Heard ‘Round The World

180 years ago the carol “Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht” was heard for the first time in a village church in Oberndorf, Austria. The congregation at that Midnight Mass in St. Nicholas Church listened as the voices of the assistant pastor, Fr. Joseph Mohr, and the choir director, Franz Xaver Gruber, rang through the church to the accompaniment of Fr. Mohr’s guitar. On each of the six verses, the choir repeated the last two lines in four-part harmony.

On that Christmas Eve, a song was born that would wing its way into the hearts of people throughout the world. Now translated into hundreds of languages, it is sung by untold millions every December from small chapels in the Andes to great cathedrals in Antwerp and Rome.

Today books, films and Internet sites are filled with fanciful tales purporting to tell the history of “Silent Night.” Some tell of mice eating the bellows of the organ creating the necessity for a hymn to be accompanied by a guitar. Others claim that Joseph Mohr was forced to write the words to a new carol in haste since the organ would not play. A recent film, created for Austrian television places Oberndorf in the Alps and includes evil railroad barons and a double-dealing priest, while a recent book by a German author places a zither in the hands of Franz Gruber and connects Joseph Mohr with a tragic fire engulfing the city of Salzburg. You can read claims that “Silent Night” was sung on Christmas Eve in 1818 and then forgotten by its creators. Of course, the latter are easily discounted by manuscript arrangements of the carol by both Mohr and Gruber which were produced at various times between 1820 and 1855…

Click here to read entire story __________________________________________________________________________________

Roger Highfield

Santa and Those Reindeer

Long before 1949, when that perennially popular Christmas hit “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was launched, the myth of the reindeer was already well established. English texts from the Renaissance mention the display of antlers during Christmas dances centuries before any belief in Father Christmas, much less the development of his legend.

Rudolph himself first appeared in an illustrated booklet written by Robert May in 1939 for the Montgomery Ward department stores to hand out to children at Christmas, and was used as the theme for the popular song written by Johnny Marks a decade later. It was first performed by Gene Autry, the “Singing Cowboy.”

One commonly held view is that Rudolph’s nose was red due to a cold. Others claim that the song has saddled Rudolph with the red-nose slur—the implication being that while Santa consumes the milk and cookies left out for him, Rudolph helps himself to the strong stuff. The unexpected triumph of the drunken, inefficient Rudolph over his sober companions chimes with the relaxation of social conventions that has long taken place during winter festivals…

Click here to read entire story

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franciscan cyberspot

The Christmas experience

The celebration of the Christmas Liturgy dates back to the primitive church. And this cannot be otherwise as the devotion at this site goes back to the first Christians. The first liturgical documents (the Diary of the Spanish pilgrim Egeria and the Armenian Lectionary of Jerusalem - both IV-Vth century) give us a description of the Liturgy of Epiphany..

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Places of the Christmas Narrative

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Twas the Night before Christmas Poem

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

“Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”

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Chistmas Carols

Chistmas Carols

Angels from the Realms of Glory
Ave Maria carol
Away in a Manger carol
Christians Awake salute the Happy Morn
Deck the Halls carol
Ding Dong Merrily on High
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Good Christian Men Rejoice
Good King Wenceslas carol
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
I Saw Three Ships carol
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
Joy to the World

Old Christmas Carols
O Christmas Tree carol
O Come All Ye Faithful
O Come O Come Emmanuel
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Once in Royal Davids City
Silent Night carol
The First Noel carol
The Holly and the Ivy
The Wassail Song
We Three Kings of Orient are
While Shepherds Watched

CLICK HERE FOR 42 ADDITIONAL CHRISTMAS CAROLS!

Christmas Poems

The Christmas Poems that have been selected are very traditional and are dated as far back as the 14th century. Many of the Christmas Carols detailed on the appropriate section on this site were originally written as Christmas Poems but became Christmas Carols when music was added to them! The Christmas Poems that have been included never actually had music added to them so are therefore not very well known but nonetheless deserve a section of their own.

Twas the Night before Christmas a poem by Clement Clarke Moore
A Christmas Carol a poem by G.K.Chesterton
A Christmas Carol a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Christmas Bells a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Marmion a Christmas poem by Sir Walter Scott
Nativity a Christmas Poem by John Donne
The Three Kings a Christmas poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity Christmas Poem by John Milton
Minstrels a Christmas Poem by William Wordsworth
Mistletoe a Christmas poem by Walter de la Mare
Christmas Cheer a Christmas poem by Thomas Tusser
The Foolish Fir-Tree a Christmas poem by Henry Van Dyke
In the Holy Nativity of our Lord a Christmas poem by Richard Crashaw
Christ’s Nativity a Christmas poem by Henry Vaughan
The Burning Babe a Christmas poem by Robert Southwell
New Prince, New Pomp a Christmas poem by Robert Southwell
A Christmas Carol a Christmas poem by George Wither
Ceremonies for Christmas a Christmas poem by Robert Herrick
Ring out, wild bells - Christmas Poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Oxen - Christmas Poem by Thomas Hardy

The Little Match Seller - a Christmas Story by Hans Christian Anderson
Christmas at Fezziwig’s Warehouse - Christmas Story by Charles Dickens
The Fir Tree Christmas story Christmas Story by Hans Christian Anderson

Auld Lang Syne a poem for New Year / Hogmanay by Robert Burns