The First Christmas Stocking

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.

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey

Christmas is pish-posh!

Oh my, I was not prepared for this story. Good thing the book came with a CD, because I wouldn't have been able to make it through without crying. This book is about the best woodcarver in the valley that keeps to himself and no one knows why he never smiles or laughs. I won't give anything away here. A mother and son request that he carves a nativity scene to replace the one that they lost in their moving to the town. This book is about hope and love. This book will get read every year in our home, that's a guarantee. If you get the book with the CD, it is narrated by James Earl Jones, whom I love his voice, personally. Here is a link to the movie on Youtube, if you want to catch a glimpse and then get or rent a copy. I'm getting one from Netflix right now!

book link:

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey

So, the good Lord must have known that I was going to be sick on the day I planned on today's book because it happened to come with a CD, I had planned to watch The Nativity Story on DVD, and the activities I planned were fairly simple. So, I got to lay on the couch and recover while the children helped themselves. Perfect timing! So, the nativity stickers and nativity felt book were brought out and played with during the movie.