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Because I love Christmas
Origins of Santa Claus
Frugal Articles Recycle Those Old Christmas Decorations
What You Should Have Saved For Christmas
Articles published elsewhere
Funky, Free and Frugal Christmas Decorations
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Christmas: An Affair of the HeartA certain something they call the "Christmas spirit..."by Pat Veretto Something in the American consciousness looks back to Christmas past with a feeling that we're missing out. Even now, many Christmas cards and greetings carry pictures of idyllic holiday scenes from a countryside of long ago. Sleighs drawn by prancing horses over winding, snow covered country roads carrying passengers bundled from head to toe against the cold. Large, well lit houses loom in the distance with welcoming warmth and family and friends waiting. Ponds with ice skaters and children with sleds. A small white church with a large steeple. Rabbits in the snow. Birds on the fence rail. Christmas in the country a hundred years ago. There really were a few large and even well lit houses in the days when electricity and central heating systems were reserved for the very rich. Small white churches abound even today. Sleighs were not uncommon - if it snowed at Christmas time. Far more common would be another sort of dwelling - small, dimly lit houses where only one or two rooms were heated. The horse that pulled the sleigh was likely the same horse that pulled the plow and the hay wagon and the sled that brought logs from the forest. That's neither here nor there, though, because what we're looking for when we allow ourselves to be drawn into these scenes is not found in the size of a house, or how many lamps or where the pond is. It's found in the heart. When we're honest with ourselves, we go looking for a better way of life. We might go looking for honest, unselfish relationships and simpler pleasures. We might go longing for the crackle of a warming fire and a cup of hot chocolate and good conversation and laughter. Christmas is an affair of the heart. More than any other holiday, it promises peace and love and contentment. With our modern lifestyles, filled with busyness and noise and demands, a Christmas from the past seems to represent everything we don't have. We are often disappointed, though, because our Christmas just never stacks up to our dreams. A yearning for that nebulous something is in the heart of mankind. The Good News is, there is a way to fill it; a way to satisfy the longing that we have for something better and it doesn't have a thing to do with returning to other days or Christmas past. Jesus Christ really is the "reason for the season" - the One whose birth we celebrate, the One whose life has brought peace and joy and love to so many. If you, like so many others, yearn for something more this holiday season, give Christ a chance. Open your heart to His love. If you know Him, spend some quality time with Him and He will fill that void. If you don't know Him, He is calling you this very moment. Make this the Christmas that you accept the greatest gift of all - the true peace and joy that comes with being born again. -------- Know that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, lived, was crucified and rose again - for you. "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." - Romans 10:9 Back to Christmas! |
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