'Maybe Christmas,' he thought, 'doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!'

Nativity by Tintoretto (c.1550-1570)

We're in the middle our terms' work and I wanted to continue our regular schedule  in the lead up to Christmas but also allow room for celebrating Advent & preparing for Christmas. So what I've done is to stretch out a week's work into one and a half to two weeks. I do this from time to time if I need to fit in extra things that I think are important or if we've had a lot of interruptions.

As in previous years I've adapted music appreciation, poetry, folk songs, picture study and handicrafts to the season and this year I'm reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens aloud and will also have some other Christmas books on hand for free reading.

We were reading of Scrooge's encounter with the Ghost of Christmas Past in A Christmas Carol this week. In Dickens' allegorical story the Ghost takes heartless old Scrooge back to the long forgotten scenes of his boyhood days:

'The school is not quite deserted, said the Ghost. 'A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still.'

They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a door at the back of the house. It opened before them, and disclosed a long, bare, melancholy room, made barer still by lines of plain deal forms and desks. At one of these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire; and Scrooge sat down upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he used to be.

I've read Dickens' book before so I know the ending. It's really a story of Redemption.

Scrooge is a grotty, detestable & wicked old man who cares for no one and deserves nothing but judgement...but the unbelievable happens and Scrooge is transformed. Dickens' story illuminates what is at the heart of Christmas:

"The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Luke 19:9

We're listening to this folk song again this year. It really does capture the joy and Good News of Christmas.

This year we're listening to the full version of Handel's Messiah. In the past we've used excerpts but Cindy's Handel's Messiah Schedule for Advent has made it easy to fit in. Just 6 to 10 minutes a day in the lead up to Christmas is very do-able and if you haven't started it yet there's still time. A few of the pieces are very short so you could easily fit two into a week and get it done.

I didn't think I had a full recording so we started off using this one on YouTube.

Then I discovered a secondhand CD I'd bought a few months ago and realised it was the version Cindy used on her schedule so we got that out only to find that instead of two CD's there was only one, so I'll be going back to YouTube for the second half. Just as well I only paid a dollar for it.

The approximate time for each section is included in Cindy's post, but an outline of the different parts is here which might be helpful and the text used by the singers is here.

The Story of Holly & Ivy by Rumer Godden

C.S. Lewis famously wrote that he was 'almost inclined to set it up as a canon that a children's story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children's story.'
I didn't read this book when I was a child but I thought it was just lovely when I read it for the first time as an adult.

If you have a little girl (or a little boy) don't miss this book. If you're an older girl, like me :) don't miss it either.

Around the age of six and up would be a good time to give it to someone or it could be read aloud to a younger child - if you don't mind having a cry while you're reading. The edition below is 57 pages long with charcoal illustrations throughout but the book was first published in 1958 and there have been numerous versions, including one illustrated by Barbara Cooney.

Like teddy bears, the dolls held out their arms. Toys, of course, think the opposite way to you. 'We shall have a little boy or girl for Christmas,' said the toys.

The toys knew what homes were like from the broken dolls who came to the shop to be mended.

'There are warm fires and lights,' said the dolls, 'rooms filled with lively things. We feel children's hands.'

'Bah! Children's hands are rough,' said the big toy owl who sat perched on a pretend branch below the dolls. 'They are rough. They can squeeze.'

'I want to be squeezed,' said a little elephant.

The toys thought that all children have homes, but all children have not.

"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst."

1 Timothy 1:15

'I Will Honour Christmas in my Heart'

I've started reading aloud  A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens using the beautifully illustrated version above. This version is published by Walker Books and is illustrated by Robert Ingpen, an Australian artist. We have a number of books illustrated by Ingpen, all quite different in subject matter from one another, and yet again he demonstrates his skill with the magnificent job he does in capturing the feel of Dickens' world in this lovely book.

Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his curiosity. He looked out.

The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley’s Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; none were free. Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. He had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step. The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever.

'I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.'

Silent Night: The Song and its Story by Margaret Hodges; illustrated by Tim Ludwig

A warm and touching book which tells how the hymn, Silent Night, came to be written in Austria in 1818; how it spread from country to country and the original composers, Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber were forgotten for a time. The book follows the hymn through the years to Christmas 1914 when, during a truce at Christmas, the German soldiers began to sing the carol from the trenches and were joined by British voices from across no-man's-land...and into a Russian prison camp during the same war...and even to the Korean War.
This book would appeal to a range of ages. The words of the hymn, piano music & chords are included.

Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo; illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline

Great Joy uses the story of a young girl, Frances, whose heart goes out to a poor organ grinder and his monkey out in the cold in the week before Christmas, to awaken compassion and the message of joy that Christmas brings. Set in the 1940's, the illustrations are large and have a lovely softness.
When the time comes for Frances to say her lines at the Christmas pageant, all she can do is think about the poor man and the monkey out on the streets but the gift of compassion within her rises and gives voice to the message of Christmas at the time when it is needed.

Kate DiCamillo said that this book began for her with the image of an organ grinder playing music in the depth and darkness of winter and that this music led her to the heart of the story:
"In a dark time, doors will sometimes magically open and let us step inside to the warmth and light of a community."

The book is recommended for ages 4 to 8.

 

The Christmas Stick - a review

One Christmas Eve in a faraway kingdom...

The Royal family are opening their Christmas presents. The young prince has received all sorts of wonderful gifts but nothing satisfies the spoiled child. Then his grandmother limps into the room and hands him a long, slender box. He unwraps the gift and finds a stick. He is not impressed but before he could utter a word, his grandmother, after wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, leaves the room.

It doesn't take long for the prince to grow bored with his expensive presents but it isn't until his cousin comes to visit and begins to play with the stick that he recognises its value and his imagination is kindled. 

And as his imagination is warmed he becomes aware of the needs of others.

This is a very simple well-illustrated story which would suit children around the ages of five to seven years.
I gave it to Moozle, who is nine, to read and she wrote this 'review.'

"If I got a stick like the one in the story, I'd do the same thing with it that the prince did. He made it into a broad sword, a lance, a flag, a lute, a shepherds's crook, an oar, a club, a bow, a trumpet, and a SNAKE!
He thrashed rugs with it. 
I think the age group that would like it would be about 3-7."

I received a free copy of The Christmas Stick by Tim J. Myers; illustrated by Necdet Yilmaz from Paraclete Press for the purpose of this review.