Friends care
Friends share
We need friends
Everywhere!
I have a friend
Whose name is …..
And we have fun together.
We laugh and play
And sing all day
In any kind of weather.
Christmas is the most wonderful time in a year when some of our dreams could come true. Maybe today the real meaning of Christmas Tradition is often forgotten but one should know that real Christmas story is based on Christian Bible. It is told in two different books: Matthew and Luke chapters 1 and 2 and you can easily find to read it online. So the Holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. The actual birthday of Jesus is not known; therefore, the early Church Fathers in the 4th century fixed the day around the old Roman Saturnalia festival (17 – 21 December), a traditional pagan festivity. The first mention of the birthday of Jesus is from the year 354 AD. Gradually all Christian churches, except Armenians who celebrate Christmas on January 6 (the date of the baptism of Jesus as well as the day of the three Magi), accepted the date of December 25th.
In American/English tradition, Christmas Day is the day for opening gifts brought by jolly old St. Nick or ‘Santa Claus’ which was a real person. He was a Christian leader in the 4th century AD and gave money to poor people without them knowing about it. It is said that one day, he climbed the roof of a house and dropped a purse of money down the chimney. It landed in the stocking which a girl had put to dry by the fire! This may explain the belief that Father Christmas comes down the chimney and places gifts in children’s stockings.
Many of our current American ideals about the way Christmas come from the English Victorian Christmas, such as described in Charles Dickens’ in his novel “A Christmas Carol.”. Dickens began writing his “little carol” in October, 1843 finishing it by the end of November in time to be published on 17 December 1843 with illustrations by John Leech wich provided eight illustrations for A Christmas Carol.
The first and best of his Christmas Books, A Christmas Carol has become a Christmas tradition and easily best known Dickens’ book. And maybe till now this book stays as a wonderful Christmas gift for children and not only. Anyway you can find the novel in “Reading Together” section to read “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens together right now.
more...But while she was still very young, oh very, very young, the sister drooped, and came to be so weak that she could no longer stand in the window at night; and then the child looked sadly out by himself, and when he saw the star, turned round and said to the patient pale face on the bed, “I see the star!” and then a smile would come upon the face, and a little weak voice used to say, “God bless my brother and the star!”
And so the time came all too soon! when the child looked out alone, and when there was no face on the bed; and when there was a little grave among the graves, not there before; and when the star made long rays down toward him, as he saw it through his tears.
Now, these rays were so bright, and they seemed to make such a shining way from earth to Heaven, that when the child went to his solitary bed, he dreamed about the star; and dreamed that, lying where he was, he saw a train of people taken up that sparkling road by angels. And the star, opening, showed him a great world of light, where many more such angels waited to receive them.
All these angels, who were waiting, turned their beaming eyes upon the people who were carried up into the star; and some came out from the long rows in which they stood, and fell upon the people’s necks, and kissed them tenderly, and went away with them down avenues of light, and were so happy in their company, that lying in his bed he wept for joy.
But, there were many angels who did not go with them, and among them one he knew. The patient face that once had lain upon the bed was glorified and radiant, but his heart found out his sister among all the host.
His sister’s angel lingered near the entrance of the star, and said to the leader among those who had brought the people thither:
“Is my brother come?”
And he said “No.”
It was taken the picture of Lise Jane as illustration. Pay attanchion, please, for her works, how they are beautiful.
There are stories that every child should know, no child left behind. Next time I’try to public my list of such books, but now I’d like to put here the fragmrnt of wellknown book that we are reading now. So…
There was once a child, and he strolled about a good deal, and thought of a number of things. He had a sister, who was a child too, and his constant companion. These two used to wonder all day long. They wondered at the beauty of the flowers; they wondered at the height and blueness of the sky; they wondered at the depth of the bright water; they wondered at the goodness and the power of God who made the lovely world.
They used to say to one another, sometimes, supposing all the children upon earth were to die, would the flowers, and the water, and the sky be sorry? They believed they would be sorry. For, said they, the buds are the children of the flowers, and the little playful streams that gambol down the hill-sides are the children of the water; and the smallest bright specks playing at hide and seek in the sky all night, must surely be the children of the stars; and they would all be grieved to see their playmates, the children of men, no more.
There was one clear shining star that used to come out in the sky before the rest, near the church spire, above the graves. It was larger and more beautiful, they thought, than all the others, and every night they watched for it, standing hand in hand at a window. Whoever saw it first cried out, “I see the star!” And often they cried out both together, knowing so well when it would rise, and where. So they grew to be such friends with it, that, before lying down in their beds, they always looked out once again, to bid it good-night; and when they were turning round to sleep, they used to say, “God bless the star!”
(to be continued )
From “Famous Stories Every Child Should Know ”
Lisa Jane’s picture as illustration