The transformative power of Advent
One of my earliest memories is singeing my eyelashes while blowing out an Advent candle. I distinctly remember standing at the crate that served as our coffee table, leaning in to blow out the first candle and jumping back as my parents gasped. Undaunted, I leaned back in and blew out the second. I wasn’t…
Christmas pudding a long-time tradition
For many of us, sitting around the table with extended family is a very important part of our Christmas celebration. In my family of origin, the traditional menu included turkey and dressing, while dessert was always iced sugar cookies and fruit salad with cubes of red and green Jell-O. I’m sure each family has its…
Christmas rush
Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year. Everyone is so joyful! We get excited for tree decorating, Christmas shopping, starting our Christmas baking while playing Christmas carols in the background, and preparing for the many gatherings that are soon to follow. And, whether you’re a last-minute shopper like I am, or one…
Christmas: Let it be, let it go
When Jill (a pseudonym) turns her calendar to December, she’ll read a message she wrote to herself a year ago: “Be intentional all through the month to not put pressure on myself and to avoid the stress of the holidays.” She says she dreads the Christmas season every year. Between gift shopping, sending out a…
A happy Christmas morning
My great-grandparents emigrated from Ukraine to central Kansas in 1874 and eventually purchased a farm. Towards the end of October 1894, the harvest was done and the year’s crop of wheat and other grains, along with hay for animals, was stored upstairs. That fateful afternoon my great-grandfather had some blacksmithing work to do and moved…
Singing ‘Silent Night’ in German
Sometimes a Christmas experience stands out in memory simply because it is so different from any other. When Joani Neufeldt, nee Goerzen, thinks of a memorable Christmas, it is one of these unique experiences: “The one that came to mind was when, I think I was late teens, we did a kind of live nativity…
Lighting candles, telling stories
When recalling a significant Christmas memory, Claire Ewert Fisher goes back some 30 years. The executive director of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Saskatchewan, Fisher and her first husband, Wally Ewert, now deceased, were working in Vietnam in the early 1970s and trying to create a connection with their usual celebrations. The weather was rainy and…
Christmas in Nazareth
“I felt a very intense homesickness and wanted to go home [to Manitoba] for Christmas. Christmas is a very important holiday to me.” It was Christmas 2010 and Hinke Loewen-Rudgers had been in Nazareth since October 2008, working through the Witness program of Mennonite Church Canada. There were certain traditions that Loewen-Rudgers did not want…
Thirty years of A Christmas Carol
Thirty years ago this Christmas, my wife Annemarie and I began a Christmas tradition we’ve continued year after year, with variations. Our first child was in utero the first time we read Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella and morality tale, A Christmas Carol, together. I had grown up watching both the Alastair Sim (1951) and Mr.…
