Christmas

The Last Straw

Book cover: The Last Straw
Author(s): 
Frederick Thury
Illustrator(s): 
Vlasta Van Kampen

To celebrate Christmas, in addition to baking Christmas cookies, setting up the manger scene, decorating the tree, and numerous other seasonal activities, we also like to pause in out preparations to cozy up together and read good books that encapsulate the true meaning of Christmas. The Last Straw by Frederick H. Thury is one such book.

The Catholic Christmas Book of Cherished Christmas Customs

Author(s): 
Father Francis Weiser
Illustrator(s): 
Frankenberg, Robert
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 Trees Kneel At Christmas

Book cover: The Trees Kneel at Christmas
Author(s): 
Maud Hart Lovelace
Illustrator(s): 
Marie-Claude Monchaux

Maud Hart Lovelace is famous for her Betsy-Tacy series of chapter books. The Trees Kneel At Christmas is a delightful story of two Lebanese-American children in 1951 Brooklyn. Their grandmother tells them how the trees kneel on Christmas in their homeland of Lebanon, but in their new home of Brooklyn the people do not have enough faith for the trees to kneel.

How to Celebrate Christmas as a Catholic

Book cover: 'How to Celebrate Christmas as a Catholic'
Author(s): 
Amy Welborn
This nice pamphlet is a simple introduction to Catholic customs and keeping Advent and Christmas meaningful and holy. The Advent segment overviews traditions such as the Advent Wreath, Jesse Tree and Advent Calendar and makes suggestions for remember the great Marian feasts of the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe. There are brief explanations of the symbolism and history of some of these customs as well as relevant tidbits.

Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany in the Domestic Church

Book cover: 'Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany in the Domestic Church'
Author(s): 
Catherine and Peter Fournier
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.

A Year With God

Book cover: 'A Year With God: Celebrating the Liturgical Year'
A Year With God is simply THE purchase of the year! Completely original, inspiring, and unique, the abundance of fresh ideas and activities will re-energize your religion class and re-motivate you to make your homeschool a truly Catholic school in every sense of the word. Spanning the liturgical year, A Year With God contains hundreds of carefully detailed and illustrated projects and activities. Nearly all of these can be extended into several other projects, giving you many, many years of exciting projects to work on with your students.

A Treasure Chest of Traditions for Catholic Families

Book cover: 'A Treasure Chest of Traditions for Catholic Families'
Author(s): 
Monica McConkey

During the past few years, there has been a renewed interest in beginning and in continuing traditions within our families within the context of the liturgical year. This book has been written to help make these celebrations easier to plan as well as to provide countless new ideas. Some of these ideas are original while others are traditional. This book is especially well-suited for families with children in the preschool years up through the late elementary years.

Living the Liturgical Year: Volume 1

Book cover: 'Living the Liturgical Year: Volume 1'
Author(s): 
Paula McEneany
This new book on the liturgical year was published last year by a recent homeschool graduate. The segment on Advent covers 34 pages (the pages are 8 1/2 x 11 inches with very dense text - so this is quite a bit of material). Miss McEneany, has provided a very thorough, updated resource for Advent traditions by bringing together detailed instructions, ideas and explanations from a wide variety of resources (including quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church and explanations about traditions from the Byzantine rite).

Catholic Traditions in Crafts

Book cover: 'Catholic Traditions in Crafts'
Author(s): 
Ann Ball
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.

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