Simplifying Christmas :: True Story

On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition--one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on. The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents. As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure.

The New American Dream's website for Simplify the Holidays has a moving true story sent in by one of its members. It contains a good idea about using alternative Christmas gifts to help us simplify our Christmas.

An Audio Advent Calendar

The BBC's website for Religion & Ethics, provides an unusual audio Advent Calendar. Each day leading up to Christmas provides a piece of poetry, music, or Bible reading, some read by famous voices, such as Derek Jacobi and Lionel Ritchie.

PW Cookie Sale!

(Click for cookie recipes from Gourmet magazine.)

Presbyterian Women host their annual Cookie Sale on Saturday, 10 December 2005. All proceeds support the PW local mission giving.

You can help by donating cookies and buying cookies. Please bring your cookies to Ferren Hall on Friday, 9 December, and mark them "cookie sale." Thank you!

Advent Begins: Glory and Peace

If you subscribe to Presbyterians Today, pull out your November issue, which contains an Advent Calendar by author Katherine Paterson.

If you don't subscribe, however, Paterson's lovely calendar is also available online from the Presbyterian Church (USA) web site. It features a collage-building activity that's especially good for the children in your family.

Bethlehem Christmas Gift Market

Each year, the Union Presbyterian Church's Mission Committee invites the congregation to consider purchasing alternative gifts from the Bethlehem Christmas Gift Market. The Market allows us to purchase mission gifts in the name of a friend, relative, neighbor, or other loved one.

On December 4th and 11th, the Market table is set up after worship in Ferren Hall. When you make a purchase, you will receive a beautiful Christmas gift card along with your gift inscription; then you can send the card to the person of your choice. Gifts are available in all prices. Here's the Bethlehem Shopping List for 2005:

• Bibles (Gideon)--$5.00 each
• Blanket Program (Church World Service)--$5.00 each
• Floresta USA--$1.00 per tree
• Habitat for Humanity (Mountain Spirit Habitat, Powell)
• Box of nails--$10.00
• Paint--$20.00
• Lumber--$50.00
• UNICEF (Medical needs)
• Vaccinations (6 childhood diseases) for one child--$20.00
• Vaccinations (6 childhood diseases) for five children--$85.00
• 5-day course of antibiotics (116 children)--$35.00
• Heifer Project International (world wide)
• Goat--$120.00
• Share in goat--$10.00
• Sheep--$120.00
• Share in sheep--$10.00
• Bees--$30.00
• Pig--$120.00
• Share in pig--$10.00
• Chicks--$20.00
• A few chicks--$2.00
• Heifer--$500.00
• Share in heifer--$50.00