Christmas Joy!

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“Joy to the World , the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And Heaven and nature sing.”

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 “For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Luke 2:11 [RSV]

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It’s just a Nativity set, isn’t it?

Crude black grease pencil numbers mark the underside of the painted clay manger bearing the Baby Jesus.  They say 79 cents. That was its price back in the mid-1970s when it was purchased in the now non-existent Woodward’s Department Story along with the other figures joining the Babe in our family’s first crèche.

Budget constraints governed the choice then, but long after we could have afforded to replace them with better quality, we didn’t. We grew accustomed to them – each year carefully unwrapping the familiar figures and setting them into the shelter made by my hubby from a handful of leftover cedar shakes.

I didn’t particularly care for the look of them but after so many years there was a certain loyalty at stake. I admired other nativity sets – one particular ‘other’ – but couldn’t justify buying a second set when the original had nothing wrong with it.

Forty-some years later my wonderful hubby decided the time had come to indulge my dream, and last year for Christmas he bought me the Willow Tree Nativity set.

 

Just as in home decorating, clothing styles or vehicle choices, people’s tastes will differ here. We are attracted to things for many reasons. I love the simplicity of the figures in this set… the hand sculpted look and the emotions they evoke, as I visualize that Bethlehem scene over two thousand years ago.

In art there are many different interpretations of the manger scene. There are some… um, unique ones, too, as discovered by youth pastor Mark Oestreicher who has now expanded his collection from last year’s twenty-seven to this year’s impressive forty-two of what he calls “the worst nativity sets”.

Our old set doesn’t qualify for his collection. It’s old fashioned, but typical. We still have it, although we didn’t unpack it this year. I’m not sure what we’ll do with it since it has earned its place as one of our many Christmas treasures and I can’t quite give it up.

Christmas is all about the arrival of Jesus the Christ into our messy world. However simple or elaborate, nativity sets are not meant to take their place in our homes as just another Christmas decoration. While we shouldn’t need miniature figures to remind us of the Love-made-incarnate that came to us that night long ago, they do give us something to focus on when we tend to slide past his birthday celebration into mere social activities.

Come to think of it, it couldn’t hurt to have a set in every room of our house. Maybe I should go unpack the other one.

Is a nativity set part of your family’s Christmas traditions?

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I’m taking a blogging break for the next couple weeks. I’ll still be around and will turn up online periodically, but in addition to my writing I want to take extra time to focus on family activities and the significance of the Christmas season.  In the meantime, consider this quote from Max Lucado:

 “Off to one side sits a group of shepherds. They sit silently on the floor, perhaps perplexed, perhaps in awe, no doubt in amazement. Their night watch had been interrupted by an explosion of light from heaven and a symphony of angels. God goes to those who have time to hear him — and so on this cloudless night he went to simple shepherds.” *

May he come to you this Christmas.

(* Max Lucado in “The Arrival” from Christmas Stories for the Heart)

 

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What about Christmas details in our writing?

Pine? Fir? Spruce? If you erect a tree in your home this month, does it matter to you which species you select and whether it’s thick and cultured or naturally grown? Or is the big decision maybe between real and… blech… artificial? (Sorry, but I have a bias!)

Lodgepole pine tree

I realize there are people living in some cultures, locations, or situations where evergreen trees are not included in the celebration, but our home is not one of them. While “O Tannenbaum” isn’t among my favourite carols, I never feel quite ready for Christmas until our tree is in place. Believe me, the fragrance of fresh cut greenery in the house is better than any scented candle!

Those of us who advocate for a “real” tree often have very strong opinions about what constitutes the ideal one. Many of the trees I grew up with were Lodgepole pines because that’s the variety commonly found in the area of our Cariboo property. Their long branches can be a little ‘gawky’ at times, but I like them, even if I’ve occasionally referred to one of ours as a ‘Charlie Brown’ tree.

Identifying the species or subspecies doesn’t matter a whole lot to me, as long as I like its looks, but if I were writing about the Christmas tree gracing my protagonist’s living room, I’d be in trouble with that attitude. For readers living in pine country, the description might elicit a particular mental image, so it had better be accurate. It’s not enough to mention the existence of a generic Christmas tree, either; details are important. And if there are cones being saved for a craft project, they’d better be typical of the species.

Lodgepole pine cone

Have you ever been reading a novel and come to a grinding halt at some inconsistency – some detail you know is not correct? John Grisham* may be tired of hearing from readers about his incorrect reference to the Inuit living in Newfoundland and a woman “born in an igloo” there, but it’s a lesson for all writers. Remember, if you send your characters out into the woods to cut down a long-needled Ponderosa (or bull pine) Christmas tree, the story needs to take place in an area where they grow in the wild.

Ponderosa pine

Does your Christmas decorating include a tree? What’s your idea of a perfect one? Do you use specific details like these to enrich your writing?

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*The Testament (John Grisham)

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Will Christmas cards become obsolete?

WooHoo!!! I’m done! Yes, I’m smirking. Every year about this time I begin to panic as I face the inevitable postal deadline for mailing out Christmas cards. It’s not like the middle of December doesn’t always arrive in the middle of December. It’s just that the date always sneaks up on me.

But not this year. With the help of my hubby, our little stack has been written, sealed, stamped and is ready to drop into the postbox today… before the middle of the month. How’s that for efficiency? (I don’t want an answer from those of you who amazingly mailed yours off on December 1st.)

 

I like this annual tradition. I don’t like to be rushed with the selecting, composing and remembering as I write.

I know there are people who have given up on Christmas cards, finding them a chore, or preferring to save the cost of purchase and postage and avoid writer’s cramp in favour of sending an e-mailed greeting, and I don’t see anything wrong with that. I send the occasional Hallmark e-card myself. However, on the receiving end, unless I print out those messages, I can’t sit down with a coffee at my convenience and enjoy browsing through the cards multiple times, admiring the different designs and re-reading the messages from family members and friends old and new. I’m one of those oddities who savours Christmas newsletters, loves to catch up on the year’s happenings and study photos of everyone’s grandchildren.

Communication has seen a major overhaul in the past couple decades. I treasure Skype and iChat visits with my family, and adore the e-mailed digital photos taken one minute and delivered to my inbox the next. Instant text messages by the hundreds have replaced many conversations, reducing personal interaction, and yet I see how convenient they are.

I wouldn’t want our current technology to disappear, but neither would I like ‘the old ways’ to be discarded. Like print books and eBooks, I think there is justification for both methods to complement each other – times when each can meet a personal need.

When I mail these envelopes later today it will be with the hope that each recipient will share the same pleasure from the greeting that I get out of writing it – the same pleasure that I do when theirs arrives here. It is a cherished tradition, this age-old form of communicating our good will at Christmas.

(Did you notice that communication has ‘commune’ as its root?)

Do you think writers might enjoy this form of communication more than non-writers? Do you still send out traditional Christmas cards? Do you think they will eventually become obsolete?

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The new and the old

Our decorating is pretty well done. There’s a pot I want to fill with evergreens, but it can wait another day or two. Today I decided it was time to make a start on Christmas baking. Other than the fruitcakes traditionally made and stashed away in early November, there are only a few stale chocolate chip cookies in the house.

Out came the old familiar recipes. Peanut butter snowballs? Mmm, love them! I could eat them like candy. Oh, but they require chilling and rolling into balls; then there’s icing to make, dipping, more rolling in cocoanut. No, not today. Shortbread? My hubby loves shortbread but his favourite is the old Scottish style, kneaded until the dough cracks, pressed into a pan and chilled, followed by long, slow baking. Did I say kneading? Not the way my wrists are today, thank you.

Ah, perhaps the newer alternative — whipped shortbread. Apparently more serious bakers than I am have known about this recipe for years, but I was first introduced to it a few years ago when my son made a batch. Just put the five ingredients together and let the mixer do all the work. Drop spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and pop them into the oven. That’s my kind of recipe. Newer isn’t always better, but, besides the ease of making, I like the tender, melt-in-your-mouth goodness of these buttery morsels. And if it means the difference between shortbread or no shortbread, my hubby is enthusiastic about them, too.

With a mug of tea in one hand and a shortbread cookie in the other, I sat down to admire the decorated tree. There are a few new ornaments on it this year — I can never resist anything to do with snowflakes — but it’s the beloved old ones that always draw my gaze first.

There are a couple that have been on every tree since I was born (I mentioned one of them in this post last year), and there are a handful that once adorned my parents’, my inlaws’ and my grandparents’ trees. This fragile bird  is one of those treasures. It’s special not so much because it’s old, although it is — possibly a hundred years old — but because of its history. It has witnessed generations of our family from its perch on various branches. Gatherings with family and friends, laughter, meals shared, gifts opened… “if it could talk, what stories might it tell?”

Many homes have heritage items — if not ornaments displayed on a tree, then perhaps other things on a shelf or in a cabinet. I don’t think of ours as valuable from a monetary perspective, but they’re significant family heirlooms. When I wrap them up for another season of storage, there are slips of paper noting their origins that go in with them because it occurred to me one year that if nobody else knows about them, their history will end with my husband and me.

The main character in my last novel is eccentric enough to keep an album with photos and an explanation about everything she values. I call her eccentric because she has no children or close relatives to peruse her albums or care about her possessions after she’s gone! But this little quirk tells the reader something about her personality. As long as they aren’t overdone quirks and idiosyncrasies can be useful in defining our characters.

My expanding waistline is going to define me if I don’t stop munching on these cookies!

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What methods do you use to make your characters memorable? Are family heirlooms of significance in any of your stories? Do you have any special Christmas treasures? Oh, and what’s your favourite Christmas cookie?

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“In every conceivable manner,
the family is a link to our past, a bridge to our future”

Alex Haley

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“In each family a story is playing itself out,
and each family’s story embodies its hope and despair.”

Auguste Napier

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Does nostalgia fuel your writing?

“Simple things entertain childish minds.”

Some fifty-odd years ago one of my treats at Christmastime was visiting the street in front of the old Woodward’s Department Store in downtown Vancouver to admire their whimsical Christmas window displays. The animatronic creations in each storefront window were “portals of Christmases past” and intrigued me.

They’ve become part of Vancouver’s history now, and when the Woodward’s store was finally closed in 1993 the figures and sets were purchased by Canada Place. They’ve been restored and are once again on display there and at various other venues around the city, bringing delight to a new generation.

I’ve also admired the heritage village displays that make their appearance at this time of year – those tiny porcelain Victorian village collectibles, each miniature building nestled in make believe snow, with lights winking from their windows and inch-high people frozen in their busy everydayness.

For all my delight in such things, I’ve never had a set. At least, I hadn’t until last year when a set of three tiny buildings and their accessories appeared at our church’s silent auction. I bid… and I upped my bid a few times, knowing that my frugal nature wouldn’t allow me to indulge myself if the price went very high. I think the other bidders took pity on me as I hovered anxiously near the auction table when closing time neared.

Not only did I end up with the set last year, but when a fourth piece appeared at this year’s auction, I claimed that one as well. I’m not sure how I explain my fascination with these pieces. I don’t even write historical fiction, but there’s a nostalgia connected to the endless stories my imagination concocts for them.

The main character in my most recent novel couldn’t resist their appeal either. With her home recently vandalized, and her husband in hospital, her Christmas is filled with uncertainty. The petite Dickens’ village scene she discovers in a store window sets off a yearning for the security of a bygone time and plays a significant part in the story.

No, I’m not going to tell you what happens, but I’ll ask if any of your own longings find their way into your stories. Have you ever let your characters have possessions that you’ve wished for?

This is a post with no real purpose, other than to try to justify my totally unnecessary acquisitions. My mother was probably right and I’m indulging my childish whims. I enjoyed setting these little porcelain pieces in place yesterday and will continue to be enthralled by them throughout the Christmas season… guilt free. So there!

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Candles & Greenery, Magic & Mystery

Candles and greenery are turning up everywhere. Sunday being the first Sunday in Advent – and part of the first weekend in December – we began our Christmas preparations… at least a few initial ones.

We put up our tree. I know it’s early, but I’m like a little child when it comes to Christmas. I can hardly wait!

Saturday evening our church held its annual Christmas turkey dinner and the mood was set. There were candles at every table.

Then in church Sunday morning we lit the first candle on the Advent wreath – the “Candle of Hope” – and we sang:

You are the Hope living in us
You are the Rock in whom we trust
You are the light
shining for all the world to see…

Jesus, our hope,
living for all who will receive…

Lord we believe *

Our children come from muddled parents. My upbringing didn’t include faith or church attendance and Christmas was a secular celebration. My hubby’s father was a Presbyterian minister and in their household the holiness of Christmas was important. Our children grew up with a heritage that included a little of everything that both of us found meaningful from our backgrounds, and it’s a wonder they ever found their way through the magic and the mystery!

But they did… all the way through to their own solid Christian faith. (Obviously it wasn’t of our doing but the hand of God on their lives.)

Christmas can be celebrated in the silence of an unadorned stable, the holiness of our churches or amid the twinkling lights, greenery and decorations of our homes. The important thing is that we acknowledge the Christ of Christmas, the Hope of the nations, the Light of the world, and during this season of Advent prepare again for the significance of his coming.

As I write this, I’m squinting at the lights on our tree and setting my sights on him.

* Hope of the Nations – Brian Doerksen

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In his name the nations will put their hope.

Matthew 12:21 – NIV

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We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.

Psalm 33:20 – NIV

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But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord,
I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.

Micah 7:7 – NIV

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It’s coming: a new month… a new season… a time of preparation

Yesterday was the last Sunday of the church year. Next Sunday we begin again. Advent – advenio, “to come to” – is a four week period when we prepare for the coming of the Christ. We prepare for his birth at Christmas, his coming into our lives, and his eventual Second Coming.

For many, this preparation also means getting organized for the December 25th celebration… gift purchases, food preparation, home decoration. My hubby has put up outside Christmas lights already, although he won’t turn them on until this weekend. I can hardly wait! I love the special holiday lights that sparkle through December nights. But none of them can equal the glory of God’s light.

This was sunrise a couple weeks ago while we were at our Cariboo cabin.

I began my NaNoWriMo month of writing there, pulling out my laptop every morning soon after dawn when the men left for their day of hunting. Without my usual daily distractions I accumulated words in excess of the daily average and returned home to post over 18,000 words on Day #10. Since then… well, let’s just say I haven’t quite maintained that average.

November 30th, and its conclusion of NaNoWriMo, is creeping steadily closer. I may or may not complete 50,000 words by then, but I will have made significant progress on the first draft of a new novel. I will be ready to change my focus from intense writing to a more normal pace which will give me time to also concentrate on Advent.

I love all the different preparations that will come with the new month. The house will have evergreen boughs and twinkling lights, and the fragrance of sugar cookies and shortbread. There will be family and friends visiting, special music playing, and wrapped presents under a tree. I hope there will be a little snow, too, although I know better than to count on it.

And there will also be time — time to ponder the coming miracle of God’s personal Christmas gift to the world, to me. Oh, the wonder of it!

What’s your favourite part of this season of preparation?

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An early bit of Christmas nostalgia

Back in the age of dinosaurs when I was a pre-teen, my parents built a log cabin on a lake in BC’s back woods. Dad and the only other person living on the lake, a trapper, cut the trees on the site and managed to maneuver them into place while mom and I did our part by peeling off the bark.

(Clicking on any photo will enlarge it for a closer look.)

My dad was a masonry contractor who had built two homes in Vancouver, but this was unlike those city houses. It was primitive accommodation – just one tiny room, initially with a dirt floor, a front window salvaged from a Vancouver streetcar and small windows in two of the other walls. The roof was finished with a multi-hued assortment of leftover shingles.

New citified luxury – a light below the old cabinets, usable only when the generator is operating.

Sixty years later, all that remains of that cabin is a shell. A small set of sturdy cupboards, handmade by a family friend, was rescued out of it several years ago, along with the original yellow-print cotton curtains that served to cover lower shelves. My son re-installed both in our own little cabin and we continue to use them in a more comfortable albeit very rustic setting.

Last Christmas I received an unusual and precious Christmas gift from my husband. He had salvaged a damaged piece of donnacona from the old cabin and framed it for me. It bears my dad’s block printing: “This cabin belongs to John McGuire…” and a series of updated addresses and telephone numbers.

I was reminded of this when Laura Best asked in her post yesterday, “What is the most unorthodox gift you ever received?” I think my framed piece of donnacona qualifies. It has no monetary value at all, but it was given and received in love, and to me it’s priceless. As I begin to think of Christmas 2012 and what gifts might be bought or made, I recall a quotation from Mother Teresa: “It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”

The Christ child whose birthday we will celebrate next month was born so that he could die for us. The ultimate gift of love.

“But God has shown us how much he loves us—
it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!”

Romans 5:8 [GNT]

The old cabin as it looked last Friday.

“Christmas… that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance — a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.”

[Augusta E. Rundel]

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I think it would be interesting to keep Laura’s question going, so…
“What is the most unorthodox gift you ever received?”

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A worthwhile challenge: can we do it?

Yes, I know I said I was taking a blogging hiatus, but this is worth breaking it for.

Every so often I come across a very worthwhile cause. This time it was on Facebook, where I discovered singer/songwriter Jimmy Rankin had decided to do a Christmas giveaway — a personally signed guitar. He plans to give it to someone who comments on the offer, and whose comment garners the most number of “likes” before December 31st. Simple. No strings attached.

Jimmy Rankin

Win a signed guitar Epiphone DR 100 from me for the holidays! Just comment below and tell me why you’d like to win. Have your friends like your comment and the person with the most likes will win! Good luck everyone! Happy Holidays! – Jimmy

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What made it worthwhile to me, however, was that one of the people who commented was Kelly Yeats, the sister of author and blogging friend Laura Best, and the reason she would like to win the guitar is so she can give it to her nephew who is recovering from a devastating car accident in which his back was broken.

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There are hundreds of comments on Jimmy Rankin’s post, but only two are really close to winning, with Kelly Yeats in second place barely a dozen votes behind. Lots of people would love to have this prize, but as I read through the comments last week I realized that most just “wanted” it, either for themselves or to give to someone else who would like to have it. I couldn’t see anyone else who would benefit by being physically and emotionally encouraged in his long road to recovery like Kelly’s nephew. So, I’ve taken up the cause, too. With only three days left, the two top comments are staying pretty much neck-’n-neck in number of votes. I’d love to help rally more votes for Kelly’s comment.

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This is a Facebook thing, so you have to have a Facebook account if you’d also like to help.

• Sign into your Facebook account.
• Go to Jimmy’s page.
• Once there, find Kelly’s comment (you’ll have to click several times on “view previous comments”, then scroll down to find hers. It was made on December 14th at 2:37 a.m. my time (PST), 6:37 a.m. if you’re farther east where Kelly lives.)
• Click “like” on her specific comment for the vote to count (adding your own comment in support of her doesn’t count as a vote). (There are over 1100 “likes” on it now, but she’s still running in second place.)

I hope you’ll agree this is worth the effort and, if you have a Facebook account, will click on over and vote by “liking” Kelly’s comment. I’ll let you know in my Monday post how it works out. Whoever wins, I wish her nephew a speedy and complete recovery from his injuries.

Carol

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JANUARY 1 UPDATE

Although Kelly didn’t win the contest, she maintained second place by about 20 votes. This morning Jimmy Rankin posted the following notice:

“You guys rock! The response to the Epiphone guitar contest was fantastic – so many great comments – wow! Congratulations to Colleen Ingraham on winning the contest! It was neck and neck right down to the wire. Kelly – if you can hang tight, I’m going to get a signed guitar to you for your nephew. Happy new year to all and here’s to your dreams becoming reality in 2012! Cheers… – Jimmy“

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Meanwhile, Kelly has created a separate Facebook page to collect well-wishes for her nephew, Robin Varner. What a lot of ‘coming together’ this contest has created!

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