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View Full Version : So, This is Christmas, and What Have YOU Done?


Conveyor Belt
12-16-2006, 10:15 AM
Reading the Christmas e-mails, especially fuzzis, got me to thinking about all the stuff we do/don't do for Christmastime.

So, I've got a challenge for all of you MyHattiesburgers out there. Pick something from the list on fuzzis posted email and do it. You can post about it if you want. Also, try something different, or add something else if you already do one of these. If you always go visit people in nursing homes, add another one to it, or create your own.

Here's the email list:

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my wish list. Choose something from it:

1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year. I know, they tell Me all the time.

2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don't have to know them personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.

3. Instead of writing George complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don't you write and tell him that you'll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up. It will be nice hearing from you again.

4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can't afford and they don't need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth, and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms and remind them that I love them.

5. Pick someone that has hurt you in the past and forgive him or her.

6. Did you know that someone in your town will attempt to take their own life this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you don't know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile; it could make the difference.

7. Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren't allowed to wish you a "Merry Christmas" that doesn't keep you from wishing them one. Then stop shopping there on Sunday. If the store didn't make so much money on that day they'd close and let their employees spend the day at home with their families.

8. If you really want to make a difference, support a missionary-- especially one who takes My love and Good News to those who have never heard My name.

9. Here's a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your town who not only will have no "Christmas" tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive. If you don't know them, buy some food and a few gifts and give them to the Salvation Army or some other charity which believes in Me and they will make the delivery for you.

10. Finally, if you want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don't do things in secret that you wouldn't do in My presence. Let people know by your actions that you are one of mine.

Conveyor Belt
12-16-2006, 10:20 AM
Personally, I wrote a letter and sent a Christmas card to my father. I haven't seen my father in about 15 years. He lives about 2 miles away. I wrote a letter telling him who I was, what I was doing, basically a biography of my life, so if nothing else, he knows the son he has. I left an offer open for him to contact me. I haven't heard anything from him, and I'm not sure if I'm suprised at that or not, but letting all that anger go from being angry at him has helped. It's kinda left a void in me, too.

Also, since we don't know that many people, my wife and I are sending out the remainder of our Christmas cards out to random names picked from the phone book, and are putting in a bit of $$$ in each one, just for kicks. We're asking in each card that the recipient use the $$$ to help someone who needs it, buy someone a meal, buy a poor kid a toy, etc. Kind of a Christmas stranger pay-it-forward in minature. Imagine if that one caught on!

Em.C.Spiteri
12-16-2006, 11:34 AM
Being a Christian myself, and a Catholic to booth, I agree with the list.
To "Converyor" I would say, forget the letter, go and see your father yourself. Forget the past.

That's my .02 cents

Conveyor Belt
12-16-2006, 11:43 AM
To "Converyor" I would say, forget the letter, go and see your father yourself. Forget the past.


I thought about that, about just showing up, but there was a lot of stuff I needed to say that, if met face to face, probably wouldn't have gotten said. You may not know how that is, but I don't always get it all out there (hard to believe, huh?) when emotion is involved. He knows 100% how I feel, how I felt, and how I am.

fuzzis
12-16-2006, 12:40 PM
We always give in my family. My Sner buys extra groceries each time she goes to the store and then drops them off at the local shelter...every week between Halloween and Christmas. I'm not quite so good as that, but I do manage about 10% of my income for the month of December.

Every year I also send a raft of Christmas cards to the nursing home/assisted living facility where my grandparents spent the last year of their life.

Last year after Christmas a bunch of my friends and I talked about the need to not get each other presents. We're to the age where we have just about everything we need or want...or can easily get it. So, we're making charitable contributions in each other's name. And I'm writing a little piece for each of them...about what they mean to me, something significant in our relationships. That's increasingly important in my life.

fuzzis

amanda
12-16-2006, 01:14 PM
No. 9 is something I've done for years. I have always participated in a Christmas Child program, whether through the JA, Salvation Army, or the like. Over the last couple of years I've really involved my own children in this process. We pick two children every year close to their age and buy gifts for them. I hope it will emphasis to my children that while we may not have everything we "want", God has provided very well for us and in turn we should give that back to someone not as fortunate.

I brought this same type of program to my Cubscouts with the Operation Christmas Child program. We discuss the countries that the gift boxes will be going and how difficult those children have it just to survive, I believe it is so important to teach children that it is truly better to give than to receive. (And hopefully they want give their parents such a tough time when they don't get the overly expensive gifts themselves! Well, I least I hope so.)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Kitty
12-16-2006, 02:02 PM
As we've done the last few years, we adopted a special needs child.

Had much fun buying toys. :smt111

The saying that "it's better to give than to receive". . . it's true. :smt111 :smt111

Maggie-Doodle
12-16-2006, 09:00 PM
Our family tries to do stuff for the soldiers. The last three years we hosted numerous soldiers for Thanksgiving..that we really enjoyed. For Christmas I have gotten stuff together for ditty bags for them and also sent out a mess load of cards....there are several national organizations that can put you in touch with the soldiers.

My husband was in Viet Nam and my son was also in the Army Reserve. I would hate to know they were in a foreign country, fighting for their lives and the lives of others and not be able to know they were loved and missed by the american citizens. It is not about how much you spend or how much you send over there...it is about the thoughts and love that you can send...even if all you can afford is a letter or a card.