Chris Augustus Christmas Central Page
Last Modified 09/08/2006
Welcome to the Christmas Central page mostly unchanged for 2004 with the addition of two of my wife's pages thought lost, but located when moving files from an old computer to a new computer. You can view 1999's page and the two famous animated pages direct from these links, or read on:
For me, the Christmas season begins with Thanksgiving Day. I have a house rule that no Christmas music is to be played until Thanksgiving Dinner is finished. The only exceptions are if things needs to be prepared early (like with a musical instrument or these pages). Then dust off the 45's, LP's, and CD's. Then Advent begins with the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. Then BOOM! Christmas Day hits, then New Year's, and everything is put away until next Thanksgiving. Something is missing?
The Christian Bible tells us of the birth and life of Jesus in the books of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. For people who say that Jesus has no meaning or power in this day only have to look at the chaos created by His birth each year. Name any other religious or political figure that causes that much commotion every year for many, many years. I can't think of any. The book of John contains one verse that sums up Christmas: John 3:16. In my own words, here is what is says: "God loved the world so much, that he gave us his only son. Whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life." Many bad things are done in the name of religion, but the very next verse tells us that Jesus was not sent to condemn the world, but to give everlasting life. There are bad things in this world that should be condemned, but don't forget condemning was not Jesus' major task with us. A preacher once showed me that when you point a finger at someone, there are three fingers pointing back to you!
As Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful of the blessings given to us, Christmas offers many opportunities to give back blessings. It is better to give than receive, but remember for someone to give, someone else has to receive. In college, my female friends could get me to move anything anywhere for a batch of brownies. When I do favors for people and they want to pay me, I'll say a fresh cake is payment enough. I can't wait for something simple to break at my grandmothers house, so after I fix it, I can receive one of her meals. The best form of giving has to be when you do something anonymously.
One thing that used to bug me at Christmas was the use of the word "XMAS". That bothered me because I thought the name of Christ was symbolically being removed from the season which bares His name and replaced with an "X". Then it was shown that the letter "X" is made up of two lines that cross each other. In other words, the letter "X" is a type of cross. Since Jesus gave his life to pay for our sins on a cross, we are not removing Christ from Christmas. Instead we can remind ourselves that Jesus was not only just born, for everyone alive today was born, but he gave is life to pay for our sins so that we may receive eternal life. Then He rose again on what we celebrate as Easter.
I am not an ordained preacher. Nor am I one of those people that will club you over the head with religion. My views may not be the main stream views of Christianity. I find the creation story in Genesis and theories of evolution and the big bang can co-exist. I wonder if local school board's could refuse federal money and allow limited religion back into public schools. I also believe that there is nothing I can say or write that will make anyone accept Jesus as their personal savior. All I can do is make the knowledge available, answer questions as best as I can when asked, and attempt to live a Christian life to be both more Christ like and a good example. Sometimes my job or normal life take me to hotel rooms either here in town or places far away. Shortly after arriving in any hotel room, I look for the Gideon Bible. The Beatles traveled all over the world and must have noticed the Gideon Bibles in hotel rooms where they stayed. In one of their songs, Rocky Raccoon "... fell back in his room, only to find Gideon's Bible. Gideon checked out, and he left it no doubt, to help with good Rocky's revival." With that said, on to the Christmas links!
This page was created and copyrighted © 1998 - 2004 by Christopher L. Augustus