The end of the year is a popular time to make charitable donations. For some it’s a last chance to give before the tax year closes. Others find themselves in a Christmas kind of spirit and share that by giving. And others are just procrastinators. ☺ Whatever the reason(s), it’s a critical and crazy time for charitable groups hoping to meet end-of-the-year goals. Two weeks ago I shared some of our family’s favorite charitable causes and you can certainly return to that post to find more information about them. Toward helping those interested in making end of the year gifts, I thought I’d share three more of my favorites, each...

Several readers shared a more recent retelling of the Christmas story made by the folks from St. Paul’s Church in Auckland, New Zealand. This one is not retold by children, however, but rather by current resident of Bethlehem. Filmed in Bethlehem – a modern city of hope, pilgrimage, and unspeakable sorrow – it is powerful in its own way and seemed both a good compliment to the earlier video and a perfect post for this second day of Christmas. Note: If you are receiving this post by email, you may need to click here to watch the...

Tonight millions of Christians will gather to hear the Christmas story read, preached on, and – perhaps most especially – sung. And as we prepare to hear this story once more it occurs to me what an odd, even slightly absurd story it is. Shepherds, virgins, wandering kings, angels, stars. It really is quite a tale. Which is why, I think, that lately I’ve been struck by the ads and billboards atheists have purchased once again this year suggesting that Christmas is, to put it kindly, a myth. Struck. In light of my own musings, I have to say that I’m not particularly offended or angered, just struck. The gist of the advertisements is...

This is probably my favorite retelling of the Christmas story. The folks at St. Paul’s Church in Auckland, New Zealand do a fantastatic job with the video, music, and all the rest, and you have to love the brilliance of the idea of letting children tell the story. Plus, their New Zealand accents are adorable, especially when they say “baby” (I suppose it would have been over the top if they’d thrown in “dingo” as well. ☺) Watching it a week after the events in Newtown made it all the more poignant. I hope you can be encouraged wherever you are by this simple retelling of a beautiful story and feel, once again, the love of Jesus...

I don’t know about you, but when I think of the Christmas story, I think of, well, the Christmas story. There’s a kind of seamless whole that I have in my head made up of angels and shepherds and Mary and Joseph and the baby in the manger and the stable animals and the star and magi and all the rest. What I don’t think about is how I learned this story; how, that is, it was told to me. Certainly I learned a lot of it from the Bible, hearing the various – and distinct – portions of the story read from Matthew and Luke. But I also learned it from the Christmas carols. And from the manifold crèches in all shapes and sizes that I’ve...