I think that the Church calendar is beautiful. Yes, I do know it's man made but I am not a slave to it nor is it an idol for me. However, I find that it helps me think through ways in which I center my thoughts, heart, and life to Christ... that is what makes it beautiful.
This year, as most years of recent memory, something (whether good or bad) has turned plans upside down for what I thought our Advent and Christmas seasons would look like. Things were scaled back quite a bit with our assignment here in California being extended. I still want this season to look very different than other times in our church life and in our home life. It's an exciting time with so many opportunities to point our girls to Jesus. I had planned to do the books of Advent this year even if we had been at home this year. I'll be honest, the travel out here on the first day of Advent has set me back a bit. Here we are on Day 4 and we have yet to open a book and begin. Okay, okay... the other part is that I just got them wrapped up last night! It's all about honesty here, people.
I am still working on a few more books to purchase for the end and to help round out our collection. I am sure that some of them may even change over the years. And some years we will need to add more because, believe it or not, Advent does NOT start on December 1 like many believe. It begins on the FOURTH SUNDAY before Christmas. So, some years there are actually 28 days in Advent. This year it just happened to coordinate nicely with December 1. There is your public service announcement for today.
So, while we're being honest here I am kind of a book snob when it comes to relaying the message of Christmas to our children. We don't do Santa. Go ahead and get your "awwwwww's" out and the comments about how we are depriving our children of some great thing. We tell our children about the man who Santa is based and how that man loved Jesus and had a heart to serve people around him. They are not missing out. They do think that Santa is fun and sometimes they say, "Let's pretend Santa is real just for a little bit while we play." So, they do. I find that Christmas is already tainted by this world with commercialization. We don't want to cloud their vision with a "person" that can give them anything when the season is about God who came to give them everything.
With that, here are the books that we have in our collection or will be purchasing. Some of these books are from my childhood, some we have purchased over the years -- both new or used -- your local used book shop is a great place to start! Yes, I realize that there are only 22 books on the list. We started late and I am still trying to find more books. If you have recommendations leave them here!!
1. Who is Coming to Our House?
2. The Christmas Story
3. What Child is This? (I couldn't find a link)
4. The Most Marvelous Gift
5. Mary's First Christmas
6. A Charlie Brown Christmas
7. The Tale of Three Trees
8. What Sarah Saw
9. Silent Night (It's the song with beautiful illustrations, I have a different cover than the one shown here)
10. Merry Christmas, Strega Nona
11.The Very Special Visitors
12.The Crippled Lamb
14. Song of the Stars
15. The Christmas Story (different than the Golden Book above, but couldn't find a link)
16. Mortimer's Christmas Manger
17. Waiting for Noel
18. The Nativity
19. The 12 Days of Christmas: The Story Behind a Favorite Christmas Song
20. Humphrey's First Christmas
21. God Gave Us Christmas
22. A Child is Born
**Some of these links may lead to Kindle additions or may show really crazy prices. I provided links mostly so you can see what the book looks like. Where your procure them from is entirely up to you. :)
Fun! With our move, I haven't been able to pull anything together...boo.
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