Merry

Love is Born

 

(clicking imbiggens)

Coffee Tree

 

(clicking Imbiggens)

There are artists who spend a fortune on brushes and canvases and paints, and there are artists who create with coffee cups.

SomaFM

 SomaFM has five commercial-free channels of Christmas music to choose from this year:  LINK

There's no advertising and you don't need an account.

A Christmas Carol

Everybody knows the story of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol from the uncountable number of Christmas specials that flood the airwaves every year, but if you've never read the book for yourself, you're in for a treat.

It's in the public domain and is free to download or read online.  Project Gutenberg has the book available in multiple formats HERE, and Standard Ebooks has gorgeous editions available for Kindle or in Epub format, HERE.

 

Christmas Blessing

 

The video above was posted by my late friend Nick Temple of Sometimes Saintly Nick many, many years ago.

aka "Wakan Tanka's Prayer"

Red Nativity was an amazing Native American duo that managed to fuse their own culture with New Age and traditional American Christmast songs to create something unique and wonderful.

Mary Pondered

It's kind of interesting that Angels of the Lord™ decided to appear before a bunch of shepherds. 

I'm not really sure why.  It seems like it might have been more useful to appear before Ceaser or Pontius Pilate.

Oh well.  It wasn't my call.

Excerpted from Luke 2:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 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. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
 

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

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. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

It doesn't really say whether they took the sheep with them, or if they just waited until their shift was over.  Surely they didn't just abandon them.  Maybe the angels watched the sheep for them.

I wonder if it bothered them that the savior was in a barn?  A manger is an unusual place to find a baby.  Maybe instead of singing and dancing for a bunch of shepherds, the angels could have pooled their resources and sprung for a motel room.

There are a lot of little details to this story that are just lost to time.

The Gift of an Open Heart

 Full lyrics HERE.

Pa-rump-a-pum-pum

It's not the drums that make the song interesting, as you'd expect; it's the bagpipes.

Yeah, I kind of miss 'em...

[embed]https://youtu.be/qPoHul8ngNw[/embed]

All The Way

[embed]https://youtu.be/5avqUu6E17k[/embed]

Fats Domino's Christmas Gumbo has become one of my favorite holiday albums.  They're all traditional songs in his own inimitable style- and you can feel his smile while you're listening.  :D

Any Given Day

At the age of 81, Jessie Lee Brown-Foveaux, born in 1899, wrote her memoirs.  It was originally intended just for her family, but happily they realized what they had and published it so we could all enjoy it.

Below is an excerpt from Any Given Day, ©1979, in which she recounts her favorite Christmas memory.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

Sunday Morning Music

[embed]https://youtu.be/wb3iAI5-m48[/embed]

This one grows on me each time I hear it.  Aren't the bells magical?