6 Christmas Short Stories & Poems by Famous Writers: Christmas Daybook, 6
My Christmas daybook for these 12 days of celebrating. We'll be spending Christmastide with some favorite short films and video clips. Join me, won't you?
Watch: Listen to six classic Christmas poems and short stories!
The Old Shoemaker by Leo Tolstoy (here’s an animated version, introduced by Tolstoy’s daughter, Alexandra)
A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas (one of my personal favorites; here’s a movie version)
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson
The Three Kings by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
King John’s Christmas by A.A. Milne
Read: Psalm 20, 21:1-14; Psalm 23, 27; Isaiah 25:1-9; Revelation 1:9-20; John 7:53-8:11
Pray: A Prayer for the Sixth Day of Christmas
O Lord, you who startled the shepherds with the angelic appearance, startle us, we pray, out of our indifference to the miraculous story of your birth, so that we may never take for granted that the Maker became something Made in order to remake us anew. We pray this in the name of the eternally begotten of the Father who began to be in a baby born of Mary. Amen.
—written by W. David O. Taylor
Do: Read or listen to a book, poem, or play out loud.
Playlists for Christmas
Christmas Eve (for my Momma): The quirky, sometimes kitschy, a little bit emo, and often melancholy playlist I made when we lived so far away from my parents. Now we live far away from other people we love, but the title of the playlist will remain in honor of those first homesick years.
Ring the Bells: A bit more traditional playlist (but still highlighting the lesser-known music of the season).
All 12 Days: A playlist for a festive and full Christmastide:
*Sunday Scripture readings are taken from Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary. Daily Scripture readings are taken from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and include Morning and Evening Psalms (Year 1).