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Found on pages 82-86 of G.K. Chesterton Collected Works Volume XIV, 1993, Ignatius Press, 802 pages, softcover, Catholic perspective

This is a charming and humorous story about the spirit of Christmas through the ages. Good for a chuckle and a little perspective.

The volume in which this story can be found is available from Ignatius Press
You can also read this story online by clicking here

My first impression when I opened Advent in the Home was, “Wow, it’s all here.” Normally in October I start filling my calendar with meaningful Advent activities; jotting down ideas on scraps of paper which I promptly lose and printing out coloring sheets until I run out of ink. This seems to be fairly common in homeschooling families. Aspiring to create a more spiritual tone to what has become an oppressively secular time of year can be quite overwhelming. There are just so many ideas spread out in books, periodicals, and on the Iinternet. Gathering them all and putting them to use in the home can actually create frustration and distract well-meaning parents from focusing on Christ.

Advent in the Home attempts to lessen the workload of the educator by gathering all these ideas into one book. The book includes coloring pages for the preschoolers, prayers to accompany the lighting of the Advent candles, feast day activities and recipes, a lovely rosary booklet, a paper advent wreath centered around “Doing God’s Work”, an Advent blessings booklet, a scripture based paper chain, all the ornaments for the Jesse Tree, a template for an O Antiphon house, the Liturgy of the Hours, a Nativity matching game, and much more. The illustrations are simple, clean, and charming. There is not a single filler activity in the book; all focus on Christ and all are very doable even during a busy time of year.

In Advent Reflections, Come, Lord Jesus! Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan shares four meditations, one for each week of Advent: “The Threes Comings of Jesus,” “St. John the Baptist,” St. Joseph: A Man Forgotten,” and “Our Blessed Mother Mary.”

With his earthy, conversational tone, Archbishop Dolan’s speaks to our hearts. As he talks about St. John the Baptist, he says, “You see, John’s entire ministry was captured in that one moment when he eyeballs Jesus coming out of the desert and bellows out to the crowd, pointing to Christ, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’ (John 1:29). That was his job description—to point out Christ. With that, his job was done. He could have retired to Sun City.”

Archbishop Dolan combines teaching, inspiration, personal experience, and scripture in this lively text. To illustrate a point he is making, he weaves in short personal stories or adds scriptural passages that add depth and meaning.

Too often we listen to a sermon or read a spiritual book and later can’t recall what we have heard or read. To help us better remember his essential points, Archbishop Dolan uses catchy phrases. In describing “The Three Comings of Christ,” he says, “Our Lord comes to us in history, mystery, and majesty.”

Advent is a time of waiting and longing for the coming of our Lord. With all the bustle of Christmas preparations, it is easy to lose our focus on what this season is all about. Archbishop Dolan seeks to keep this message of hope alive with words of inspiration, questions for us to reflect on, and a prayer to carry us into the coming week.

Although there is only one meditation per week, instead of daily, there is plenty for us to reflect on during the week.

Not just “pretty” words, Advent Reflections, Come, Lord Jesus! challenges us to put our faith in action. This is an ideal resource for the whole family.

This book is an outgrowth of the authors' longstanding website www.domestic-church.com and is a great companion to the seasons of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. It is divided into four parts: Family Activities, Saints of the Season, Crafts, and Coloring Pages. The purpose is to provide families with activity ideas that foster a spiritual climate in those seasons.

While the book does have activities that other seasonal books contain, such as the Advent Wreath and Jesse Tree, there are some engaging original projects such as patterns for playable manger figures, cross-stitch patterns, instructions for making gift boxes, and a playdough recipe to make tree ornaments. One of my favorites in the book is an explanation of the Feast of the Holy Innocents, which is an often overlooked feast in the Church as it sits in the Octave of Christmas. Another totally unique project is the one entitled "Hidden Life--Forcing Bulbs" in which the family plants bulbs and then forces them in the spring. This provides great metaphors for the connection between Christmas and Easter, the hidden life of the childhood of Jesus, and the coming of his light into the world. The coloring pages include pictures of the saints that are featured in the book, manger scenes, angels, and a decorated alphabet.

Another really nice feature of this book is that the pages have a single line of scriptural text printed around the margins. I didn't notice this the first time I used the book last year. It is a lovely touch.

Recommended for the whole family!

This is a lovely gem of a book, covering about thirty saints, organized according to the calendar year, by their feast day. Like her previous publications from Bethlehem Books (Once Upon a Time Saints and More Once Upon a Time Saints), these stories are intended to capture the essence of holy men and women through the sometimes fantastical stories that are likely to capture the imagination of young children. Here is what the author wrote about her own stories:

Fairy tales clear the way for sanctity. They are the child's first morality play, clear-cut, no-nonsense black and white, good and evil, life and death - with a bit of fun thrown in to alleviate the pain. The lives of the saints, so filled with derring-do, gaiety, charm and courage, are all the more fantastic because the persons are real, even though they might seem right out of the pages of Hans Christian Andersen.

You will not find dates and statistics here, except where they seem necessary to explain how or why a saint got to his particular spot. And I have used the embroidery of legend because I feel that under its eye-catching trivia, there is the good homespun of fact. Sometimes it has been hard to discover which facts are the real facts. In reading six books about one saint, you may have as many versions of his or her death - he may have died on the battlefield, in the arms of a wife or son, pinned to a tree with seven arrows... or a combination of all three.

There was a little bit in the story of Juan Diego that bothered me (a little off on the Aztec story) and an aspect of the story of St. Nicholas that I thought pretty disturbing for young children. These little things make it probably better for a read-aloud with younger children (and really, it makes an excellent read-aloud!). A few spots made me furrow my brow or seemed just a little too silly, but these have been more than compensated for by some incredibly beautiful stories that are really well done.

One story that particular stood out for me was the one St. Paul Miki and St. Charles Lwanga. It has an absolutely stunning and incredibly appropriate explanation of the martyrs for children. Fabulous stuff and my children and I enjoyed the book very much.

Oh yes, and Ben Hatke's illustrations (he also illustrated Angel in the Waters by Regina Doman) are wonderful!

I love Christmas. I love all the preparing during Advent, the feasting during Christmas Day itself, and the Catholic and secular traditions surrounding the entire Advent-Christmas-Epiphany cycle. I love reading about Christmas and planning new traditions and dusting off old ones.

I was delighted to find a republished (by Neumann Press) copy of Father Francis Weiser’s classic, The Catholic Christmas Book of Cherished Christmas Customs. Originally published in the 1950s, I can remember Mom reading snippets from this book when I was growing up. The republication is such a blessing; especially since Neumann Press has kept the original texts and sketches and bound it all together in a hard-cover for years of use.

Please note: this is not a recipe book, craft book or activity book.

This is a scholarly work on the facts about Christmas from a Catholic world-view. Father Weiser delves into each symbol, tradition, story and saint that plays a role in the Christmas season. He begins with the Gospel versions and relates these to historic events. Next he discusses just how and when the celebration of December 25th as the birth of the Christ Child came about.

He further develops the changing times as the Protestant Revolt and the rise of Puritanism caused many of the religious aspects of Christmas to seemingly disappear – but some of what we consider very secular traditions have their roots in religious beliefs. Fr. Weiser points all these out, with specific information about why the different countries celebrate in these ways.

A few chapters are devoted to describing and explaining ancient hymns, medieval carols and modern Christmas songs – not so much the words of these carols, but more their meanings and background. He places the hymns and songs in their historical and social context, explaining when the particular hymn was sung and why.

Nativity plays and mystery play traditions from different countries and crèches are detailed. Lights, fires and the Christmas tree are symbols used in just about every culture – Fr. Weiser does a great job describing and explaining these customs.

Food, which plays a large role in many of the Christmas traditions, is the subject of the last couple of chapters. Unfortunately, Fr. Weiser doesn’t give us any recipes – and some of these treats sound wonderful! Many of the foods mentioned, thankfully, we can find on the internet to satisfy our need to make what he mentions.

Again, this book is not a typical Christmas book – there are no stories, activities or recipes. This book will give all those interested a great resource for understanding the roots of the many holiday traditions including the activities, the decorations, the music and drama of the days surrounding the birth of the Christ Child and the visit of the Magi.

This is a rather unique resource for Lent. It's a quiz book written at three levels of difficulty with all sorts of questions and answers about the Catholic Church's celebration of Lent and Easter. It primarily focuses on Church liturgy, with a very significant focus on the process of Christian initiation, culminating with the Sacraments of Initiation at the Easter Vigil.

These aren't the kind of questions and answers that you would expect your children to memorize in every particular. It's more of an informal format to discuss topics and potential questions relating to Lent and Easter.

Here's a sample page focused on Good Friday:

Level 1:

As at Mass, what prayer begins the Communion Rite on Good Friday?

(a) The Nicene Creed

(b) The Our Father

(c) The closing prayer

Answer (on back):

(b) The Our Father

Level 2:

How can we have Holy Communion without having had a consecration in a Mass of the bread and wine?

Answer (on back):

Consecrated hosts from the Holy Thursday celebration are reserved for this Communion service.

Level 3:

This is the only day of the year that Mass is not celebrated. Why, then, does the Church invite us to receive Holy Communion?

Answer (on back):

The Church's invitation reminds us of the importance of the Eucharist and of our sharing in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ through our reception of His Body and Blood. This reception of Holy Communion provides a tremendous oppoortunity to express our love and gratitude to Jesus for all that He suffered for us during His passion and death.

This seems especially good as a conversation starter for families to use who are preparing to enter the Church, but could certainly be used for families or CCD classes to simply discuss and familiarize themselves with these Church practices.

The title clearly explains what this book is all about: Gibson took the twelve months of the year, wove in the liturgical celebrations and linked these to marvelous picture books – creating a mosaic of Catholic culture and beautiful literature.

But this book is much more than an annotated book list, although that is included too. Gibson gives suggested questions for you to discuss with your children. She gives suggested copywork – that is, quotes that children memorize or use for handwriting practice. She gives ideas for activities that will reinforce the meaning of the particular book. She helps families to truly live and embrace the wondrous Catholic traditions connected to feast days, liturgical celebrations and other things Catholic.

Some of the books described and linked in this book are Catholic illustrated classics – books like Weight of a Mass by Josephine Nobisso, Song of the Swallows by Leo Politi and St. George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges are extremely popular with many Catholic parents and children. But Gibson goes beyond the “Catholic classics” and mentions books like The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen (illustrated by Rachel Isadora) and The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and how you can apply Catholic teachings to these books, giving your children a rich and lasting understanding of our Catholic culture.

In total, Gibson integrates FIFTY-TWO illustrated children’s books with the Catholic calendar and Catholic living. Books that cover the Mass, First Communion, various saints and important liturgical seasons are included. In addition, she suggests other books which may also work (but omits questions and activities linked to these “second-string” books some of which unfortunately are out-of-print or hard-to-find).

All the primary books are easily attainable from booksellers; in addition, books by popular authors like Tomie dePaola are usually available at public libraries so as not to strain your book budget too much. However, after seeing these books, you might want to have good copies for your home library. Gibson has selected books not only for the meaning in their words, but also for the beauty of their illustrations. These books could easily be used as an art study in conjunction with the literature, religion and other subjects covered in these books.

Further resources that Gibson gives the reader are suggestions for creating and maintaining a “Liturgical Notebook” throughout the year – a memory scrapbook of this literature-based journey – as well as incorporating some of the traditional Catholic homeschool resources (for example, CHC’s A Year with God or Seton’s Art 1).

Run, don’t walk, to get a copy of this book. I know I sound effusive, but this book is remarkable in its ambitious objective which is stunningly successful. This is one of those homeschooling volumes that needs to be on every Catholic resource shelf – that is, when it’s not being used!

This book includes 23 pages of Crafts relating to Christmas. There really isn't an Advent segment, but as Advent is a time for preparing for Christmas, it is certainly an appropriate time to make crafts for Christmas. Mrs. Ball explains that it would certainly be possible to write an entire book on crafts for Christmas, but that here she is providing only a sampling. Some projects you'll find include: Luminarias (a variation on the paper bag variety that are safer, longer lasting and more intricate), a special Christmas tree filled with Christian symbols, German Cookie Ornaments, Ukranian Straw Ornaments, Crochet-Edged photo ornaments, Lacy Snowflakes, Potpourri Pie, Photo Earrings, and Christmas Card Sachets. Where appropriate, the author explain the religious background or significance of projects and each project includes detailed instructions and a black and white photo.

This book contains ideas, history, personal anecdotes, traditional prayers, instructions, etc. for incorporating religious traditions into your family's celebration of Advent and Christmas. Using just one or two of the ideas listed in this book will make this season much more meaningful for you and your family. Some of the traditions which are explained include: the Advent Wreath, the Christ Candle, the Advent Calendar, the Jesse Tree, Advent Paper Chains, Kris Kringle, Letter to the Christ Child, Christmas Wheat, Christmas Creche, Christmas Baking, Advent Songs, Spiritual Reading, Christmas Cards, the Christmas Novena and Advent Feasts. Also includes ideas for celebrating Christmas Day and the feasts immediately following Christmas - St. Stephen's Day, St. John's Day, Holy Innocents Day, St. Thomas Becket, the Feast of the Holy Family, New Year's, the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, the Feast of the Epiphany, the Baptism of Our Lord and Candlemas. The ideas are simple, the layout very easy to follow and the activities are especially for larger families with small children.