I almost wished for the pageant to go on with the Herdmans in charge to see what else they would do that was different. Maybe the Wise Men would tell Mary about their problems with Herod, and she would tell them to go back and lie their heads off. Or Joseph might go with them and get rid of Herod once and for all. I was so busy planning new ways to save the baby Jesus that I didn’t notice Imogene at first. When I did, I almost dropped my hymn book on a baby angel. Imogene Herdman was crying. In the candlelight her face was all shiny with tears and she didn’t even bother to wipe them away. She just sat there—awful old Imogene—in her crookedy veil, crying and crying and crying. I guess Christmas just came over her all at once, like a case of chills and fever. And so she was crying.
Well. It was the best Christmas Pageant we ever had. Everybody said so, but nobody seemed to know why. When it was over, people stood around the lobby of the church talking about it. There was something special—they couldn’t put their finger on what.
Now, whenever I think of the Christmas story, Mary is always going to look a lot like Imogene Herdman—sort of nervous and bewildered, but ready to clobber anyone who lays a hand on her baby. And the Wise Men are always going to be Leroy and his brothers, bearing ham.
When we came out of the church that night it was cold and clear, with crunchy snow underfoot and bright, bright stars overhead. And I thought about the Angel of the Lord—Gladys with her skinny legs and her dirty sneakers sticking out from under her robe, yelling at all of us, everywhere: “Hey! Unto you a child is born!”
You are probably familiar with Christina Rossetti's "Christmastide" (a.k.a "Love Came Down at Christmas"), but she wrote a whole collection of Christmas poems. This is "Christmas Eve."
Christmas hath a darkness
Brighter than the blazing noon,
Christmas hath a chillness
Warmer than the heat of June,
Christmas hath a beauty
Lovelier than the world can show:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.
Earth, strike up your music,
Birds that sing and bells that ring;
Heaven hath answ’ring music
For all Angels soon to sing:
Earth, put on your whitest
Bridal robe of spotless snow:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.
This is a less-known Danish Christmas carol that I love. The English translation is not very literal, but is equally lovely.
I especially love the verse that begins "Nu kom han," which says (in my terrible, Google-Translate-and-a-Danish-English-dictionary translation), "Now he came, patriarch's hope, with words of flame and heaven's baptism, and the child now reveals the frame that David dimly saw and sang."
"Det kimer nu til julefest"
Det kimer nu til julefest,
det kimer for den høje gæst,
som steg til lave hytter ned
med nytårsgaver: fryd og fred.
O, kommer med til Davids by,
hvor engle sjunger under sky,
o, ganger med på marken ud,
hvor hyrder hører nyt fra Gud!
Og lad os gå med stille sind
som hyrderne til barnet ind,
med glædestårer takke Gud
for miskundhed og nådesbud!
O Jesus, verden vid og lang
til vugge var dig dog for trang,
for ringe, om med guld tilredt
og perlestukken, silkebredt.
Men verdens ære, magt og guld
for dig er ikkun støv og muld,
i krybben lagt, i klude svøbt,
et himmelsk liv du har mig købt.
Velan, min sjæl, så vær nu glad,
og hold din jul i Davids stad,
ja, pris din Gud i allen stund
med liflig sang af hjertens grund!
Ja, sjunge hver, som sjunge kan:
Nu tændtes lys i skyggers land,
og ret som midnatshanen gol,
blev Jakobs stjerne til en sol!
Nu kom han, patriarkers håb,
med flammeord og himmeldåb,
og barnet tyder nu i vang,
hvad David dunkelt så og sang.
Kom, Jesus, vær min hyttegæst,
hold selv i os din julefest,
da skal med Davidsharpens klang
dig takke højt vor nytårssang!
The happy Christmas comes once more,
The heavenly Guest is at the door,
The blessèd words the shepherds thrill,
The joyous tidings, “Peace, good will.”
This world, though wide and far outspread,
Could scarcely find for You a bed.
Your cradle was a manger stall,
No pearl nor silk nor kingly hall.
O let us go with quiet mind,
The gentle Babe with shepherds find,
To gaze on Him Who gladdens them,
The loveliest flower of Jesse’s stem.
The lowly Savior meekly lies,
Laid off the splendor of the skies;
No crown bedecks His forehead fair,
No pearl, nor gem, nor silk is there.
O wake, our hearts, in gladness sing,
And keep our Christmas with our King,
Till living song, from loving souls,
Like sound of mighty water rolls.
O holy Child, Thy manger gleams
Till earth and heaven glow with its beams,
Till midnight noon’s broad light hath won,
And Jacob’s star outshines the sun.
Thou patriarchs’ joy, Thou prophets’ song,
Thou heavenly Dayspring, looked for long,
Thou Son of Man, incarnate Word,
Great David’s Son, great David’s Lord.
Come, Jesus, glorious heavenly Guest,
Keep Thine own Christmas in our breast,
Then David’s harp strings, hushed so long,
Shall swell our jubilee of song.
Charlie: Linus is right; I won’t let all this commercialism ruin my Christmas. I’ll take this little tree home, and I’ll decorate it, and I’ll show them it really will work in our play.
[Charlie hangs an ornament on the tree, and it bends]
Charlie: I killed it! Everything I touch gets ruined!
Linus: I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It’s not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love.
Lucy: Charlie Brown is a blockhead, but he did get a nice tree.
Charlie: What’s going on here?
Everyone: Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!
I finished the last Christmas gift today, and it's wrapped and under the tree. Whew!
Yesterday, some friends of ours got married—we couldn't attend, unfortunately, having already left for Christmas vacation, but in their honor, here are two Christmas-related wedding selections. The first is from L.M. Montgomery's less-well-known series about Emily Starr. It's a bit more grown-up than the Ann series, and I love it even better. This is from the final book of the trilogy, Emily's Quest:
"I suppose you wouldn't have him because he didn't propose romantically," said Aunt Elizabeth contemptuously.
"No. I think my real reason was that I felt sure he was the kind of man who would give his wife a vacuum cleaner for a Christmas present," vowed Emily.
And here's the wedding scene in my favorite Christmas movie, Love Actually:
I'm being called for yet another game of Alhambra (an excellent game, by the way, somewhere in between Puerto Rico and Settlers), so I'll post and run. In a somewhat related note, I enjoyed the new Dawn Treader movie, but it was quite different from the book in some ways. If you're a purist, you may want to skip it.
Some of the pictures of Father Christmas in our world make him look only funny and jolly. But now that the children actually stood looking at him they didn't find it quite like that. He was so big, and so glad, and so real, that they all became quite still. They felt very glad, but also solemn.
-C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
There was cold weather all through Christmas vacation.... Teddy Watson hung around the upper end of the pond where the brook flowed in, seeing how far he could go on the thin ice before he fell through. When he found that out he climbed out of the water and went home. It was only up to his knees, so it wasn't very exciting, but there was a lot of mud, and that made it more interesting.
From The Trouble with Jenny's Ear, by Oliver Butterworth
