We read
The First Christmas Stocking, which is a book about giving of oneself. This story is about a little girl that knits stockings for money. She knits beautiful scenes in them and they are said to be the warmest stockings in the valley. Her family is very poor and all she wants for Christmas is to have a big log to burn all day, a candle to use to see what she is knitting, a spice cake to eat, cider to drink and fresh tobacco for her father. She is knitting 6 stockings for a rich lady for the money for these things. She ends up making a choice that, of course, brought me to tears.
This book is a good starting point for a discussion on giving. After our Jesse Tree day of the Suffering Servant who gave the ultimate gift, his own life, coupled with this story of a poor girl giving up her Christmas wishes, we made 3 stockings to help remind us of what we can give to Jesus, Family and Others. We labeled them and hung them up, each of us adding papers with hand-written ideas of what we wanted to give. We are going to read these out loud after dinner.
Today we read, Silent Night by Will Moses. It is a beautifully illustrated book by a renowned folk artist. It is a story of a family preparing for a new baby to come on Christmas Eve. It is set in a tiny Vermont village and incorporates the first stanza of the song Silent Night. The children really enjoyed this story, it has a very sweet ending. We made candle holders out of blue bags, we cut out different shapes for windows. Then we took Peel and Stick laminate paper and sprinkled different kinds of festive glitter to it. We used battery operated "flickering candles" (so we wouldn't burn the house down with real candles). We sang Silent Night with all the lights out, then we told stories - like you do when you are camping around a fire. It was a nice evening. The kids each took one light to their rooms and watched them as them fell asleep (you could never do THIS with real candles!). Now, I'm using the bags as gift bags for Christmas presents!
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