For many children, Christmas is focused on what they
receive. For us it was about faith and family. There were two
traditions we did when I was growing up that really emphasized this to me.
The first was the hunt for baby Jesus. In our living
room we had a simple wooden manger scene in the shape of a silhouette with
Mary, Joseph, the manger and baby Jesus. Every Christmas morning before we all
awoke my father would take the baby Jesus (a little wooden block shaped like a
peanut) out of the manger scene and hide it somewhere in the house.
Before we opened our gifts we would all search for Jesus until we found
Him. The one who finally found Him acted like they had just won the
lottery cheering with excitement. As we got older he got more and more creative
with where he would hide Him. Sometimes we had to climb on chairs or get down
on our hands and knees to look for Jesus in the most unexpected places. This
was a fun way of driving home the point that Christmas (and everyday of our
life) is about seeking Jesus and sometimes to find Him and His will for our
life we have to seek Him with all our heart.
After the gift unwrapping was over we would pick up all the
wrapping paper and gifts when suddenly Santa's song by the Oak Ridge Boys would
come blasting over the home stereo. It was in that moment my sister and I
knew we had only moments to escape because right around the corner was my
little brother sitting in a Little Tikes red wagon with my father pushing him
at full speed. We would run round and round the house with the wagon hot
on our tails. We would dive over furnature and scream at the top of our lungs.
I remember one year on Christmas morning my neighborhood friend knocked on our
front door. While the value of the gifts his parents had given him
exceeded mine by hundreds of dollars, he had left his new toys at home to come
to my house so he could run around being chased by a little boy in a wagon. It
doesn’t surprise me that I have very few memories of gifts I received but a
life full of memories of times of laughter, joy and fun we spent together.
Today I have a wooden manger scene and a little red wagon
wagon of my own so that I can pass on to my own kids the true meaning of
Christmas… Faith and family.
Published: October
29, 2024 by Blue Balloon Books
Taken from Amazon:
Come with me on a journey before there was time, and I’ll tell you the
story of the first Christmas in rhyme.
Set to the cadence of the similarly named classic, ‘Twas
Christmas Night artfully describes all the key events of the Christmas
story—the prophets foretelling the coming of the Messiah; the angel appearing
to Mary and Joseph; their treacherous journey to Bethlehem; and, of course, the
birth of Jesus. However, it goes much further in relating God’s redemptive
plan, encompassing everything from creation and the fall of humankind to
Jesus’s life and ministry, death on the cross, and miraculous resurrection.
Timeless and touching, 'Twas Christmas Night not
only details the actual events of the Bible but also poignantly describes why
they matter, reinforcing the idea that God loves each of His children and wants
a relationship with them. Masterfully illustrating why Christmas is still
relevant two thousand years later, each beautifully woven couplet presents a
promise and a reminder of the endurance of God’s love. With the warmth and
familiarity of a Christmas classic that will engage the entire family, along
with stunning, hand-painted illustrations, this book tells the most important
story ever told.
My Thoughts: ‘Twas
Christmas Night is a great telling of The Christmas Story. I love the rhyming as it makes the words flow
much smoother. I was almost singing the
story as I read it. This book tells the story in a way that
children will understand and remember.
The pictures were rough, which will allow the children to make
them their own while also seeing how the story is being told. The
illustrations tell the story just as much as the words. With this book, I paged through the pictures
first then went back and read the words.
The pictures tell the story perfectly.
Thank you Blue Balloon Books for a copy of the book in
exchange for my honest review.
Add to your MUST-READ CHILDREN’S list on Goodreads
Purchase your own copy on Amazon
About the Author:
Richard Sandberg has been writing poetry and music as an
expression of his faith since he was a young teen. As a pastor for fifteen
years with a master’s degree in Christian apologetics, he is always looking for
ways to share the message of the gospel in a way that engages our current
culture. Now, as a father of three, he is committed to passing on his faith to
his children. This project combines Richard’s theological training,
artistic talents, and experience as a father into one book designed to engage
both children and their parents in a creative and timely way with a timeless
message.
About the Illustrator:
Yvonne Agee was born in the 1950s in Wheeling, West Virginia,
but promptly moved with her parents to the Shenandoah Valley where her hometown
was only minutes from the mountains. She spent a fair amount of time playing in
and exploring this wonderful mountain terrain while growing up. The colors, the
smells, and the sounds will always dwell in her heart and influence how she
interprets what she sees and how she transfers that to a canvas. After
graduating from the University of Virginia (UVA) with a Bachelor of Science in
Education and from George Mason University with a master’s degree, Yvonne
earned a post-graduate endorsement in administration and supervision from UVA.
For several decades, she gave her energies to high school students and
colleagues, but today, Yvonne is retired from education and finds herself
exploring the world around her once again through art with a renewed passion
for abstractions and disrupted realism.
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