1.
Christmastime
Sayings
2.
Sad Christmas
3.
The Christmas Card
4.
Long Walk Included
5.
The 45 Year Old Christmas Card
6.
Hymn - Christians Awake
7.
Hymn - Savior Like A Shepherd Lead Us
8.
Hymn - I Would Be True
9.
Christmas Carols Changed Christmas
10.
Early Christmas Celebrations
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When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings with toys at Christmastime. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs? —G. K. Chesterion
For several years adman Hugh Quinn has solved his Christmas-greeting problem with this notice in the Detroit Free Press: “I will not be responsible for anyone who does not have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Hugh Quinn.” —Detroit Free Press
“What is Christmas a time for?” I asked my Sunday-school class. Came the usual answers—Jesus’ birthday, a time of joy, a time for sportsmanship, because you don't always get everything you want.
Christmas is a bitter day
For mothers who are poor,
The wistful eyes of children
Are daggers to endure.
Though shops are crammed with playthings
Enough for everyone.
If a mother's purse is empty
There might as well be none.
My purse is full of money
But I cannot buy a toy;
Only a wreath of holly
For the grave of my little boy.
—Earl C. Willer
About 95% of American families exchange Christmas cards—usually 60 to 70 cards per family. A staggering four billion cards are mailed during Christmas. How did all these get started?
Museum director Henry Cole during the mid-19th century used to write short notes to his friends at Christmas, wishing them a joyful holiday season. In 1843, he had no time to write and asked his artist friend John Horsely to design a printed greeting card. Inadvertently, he had invented the Christmas card.
And the President of the United States sends over 40,000 of these greetings yearly—probably having the longest Christmas card list in the country.
One of my favorite stories is about a missionary teaching in Africa. Before Christmas, he had been telling his native students how Christians, as an expression of their joy, gave each other presents on Christ's birthday.
On Christmas morning, one of the natives brought the missionary a seashell of lustrous beauty. When asked where he had discovered such an extraordinary shell, the native said he had walked many miles to a certain bay, the only spot where such shells could be found.
“I think it was wonderful of you to travel so far to get this lovely gift for me,” the teacher exclaimed.
His eyes brightening, the native replied, “Long walk, part of gift.”
—Gerald H. Bath
The 45 Year Old Christmas Card
Old Mr. and Mrs. Cooper invited the writer to their home for Christmas dinner at Winona Lake, Indiana. Underneath their Christmas tree and prominently displayed was a red cardboard with some clippings of the three wise men and “Merry Christmas” pasted on it. I was told that the worn cardboard was 45 years old and had been placed under the tree every CHRISTMAS. The story:
The Cooper's only son had made that Christmas card in school for his Daddy. And on his way home, some bad boys were going to tear it up. Although not used to fighting, he took off his coat and fought them off for this gift to his Dad. The Coopers never knew until a neighbor who saw it told them.
And so, in deep appreciation as only parents can know, that worn-out card (with scotch tapes on various places) had been set in front of all other presents for nearly half-a-century underneath their Christmas tree.
“What would you like for a Christmas present?” To any young girl such a question would evoke delighted visions of long-wished-for possessions, but to Dolly the answer to her father, John Byron, was, “Please write me a poem.” So on Christmas morning in 1749, Dolly found on her plate at breakfast a piece of paper on which was written a hymn entitled, “Christmas day, for Dolly.”
Soon after, John Wainwright the organist of Manchester Parish Church wrote a tune for it. On the following Christmas morning, Byron and Dolly were awakened by the sound of singing below their windows. It was Wainwright with his choir singing Dolly’s hymn, “Christians, Awake.”
CHRISTIANS, AWAKE
Christians, awake, salute the happy
morn,
Where-on the Savior of the world was
born;
Rise to adore the mystery of love,
Which hosts of angels chanted from
above;
With them the joyful tiding first
begun
Of God incarnate and the Virgin’s
Son.
—Selected
Hymn - Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us
One Christmas Eve, Ira D. Sankey was traveling by steamboat up the Delaware River. Asked to sing, Mr. Sankey sang the “Shepherd Song.” After the song was ended, a man with a rough, weather-beaten face came up to Mr. Sankey and said: “Did you ever serve in the Union Army?” “Yes,” answered Mr. Sankey, “in the spring of 1860.” “Can you remember if you were doing picket duty on a bright, moonlit night in 1862?” “Yes,” answered Mr. Sankey, very much surprised.
“So did I,” said the stranger, “but I was serving in the Confederate army. When I saw you standing at your post I said to myself: ‘That fellow will never get away from here alive.’ I raised my musket and took aim. I was standing in the shadow completely concealed, while the full light of the moon was falling upon you.
“At that instant, just as a moment ago, you raised your eyes to heaven and began to sing. Music, especially song, has always had a wonderful power over me, and I took my finger off the trigger. ‘Let him sing his song to the end,’ I said to myself. ‘I can shoot him afterwards. He's my victim at all events, and my bullet cannot miss him.’ But the song you sang then was the song you sang just now. I heard the words perfectly:
We are Thine, do Thou befriend us,
Be the guardian of our way.
“Those words stirred up many memories in my heart. I began to think of my childhood and my God fearing mother. She had many, many times sung that song to me. But she died all too soon, otherwise much in my life would no doubt have been different.
“When you had finished your song it was impossible for me to take aim at you again. I thought: ‘The Lord who is able to save that man from certain death must surely be great and mighty’ and my arm of its own accord dropped limp at my side.”
—Religious Digest
From Princeton University there graduated in 1905 a young man by the name of Howard Walter. Because of his sunny smile he was wanted where there was fun; because of his keen mind he was sought for when counsel was needed; because of his consecration to Christ, he was a blessing to all. Through college and seminary he went and then chose the foreign field as his life service. He went to India and entered into work among the students of the great educational center of the Punjab, Lahore.
One Christmas, out of his own heart and life he wrote his mother a poem. And she, recognizing the beauty of the message, sent it to Harper’s Magazine. It was his Christmas greeting to her. In 1919, when the influenza was raging in India, he was one of the victims; but he still lives in this beautiful Christmas poem dedicated to his mother. His influence is still felt in India. The verse has been set to music by Joseph Yates Peek.
“I would be true, for there are those
who trust me;
I would be pure, for there are those
who care,
I would be strong, for there is much
to suffer;
I would be brave, for there is much
to dare.
I would be friend to all the foe, the
friendless;
I would be giving, and forget the
gift;
I would be humble, for I know my weakness;
I would look up, and laugh, and love
and lift.”
Before the advent of the Christmas carol, celebrations of Christmas had become so depraved and rowdy that the observance of the joyous season was once forbidden by the English Parliament. The meaning of Christmas had become lost in a maelstrom of reveling, drunkenness, rioting, and depravity. Decent people found it necessary to stay indoors for safety. The situation became so shameful that in 1644 Parliament passed strict laws making it illegal to commemorate the season in any way whatsoever! How empty and devoid of meaning is a Christless Christmas! KEEP CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS.
—Knight
Back in the early 1700s, when the United States were the Colonies, the settlers in Williamsburg, capital of Colonial Virginia, celebrated Christmas with customs they had brought from England. There was no Santa Claus (a Dutch tradition), no Christmas trees (a German tradition), no Nativity crèche (an Italian tradition), and no chimney stockings (an American tradition).
Christmas in Colonial Williamsburg was primarily a holy day, but the atmosphere was not solemn. Churches and homes were decorated with greens, while candles burned in all the windows to welcome carolers.
There was a public celebration, too. Musicians played special concerts, and fireworks and cannon were exploded to heighten the general merriment. Feasting was in order with dishes of roasted fowl and hare, narrow pudding, ham, oysters, sausage, shellfish, often capped by whole roast boar on a platter. Some gifts were given then as part of the Christmas celebration, but not nearly on the present day scale.
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