Christmas Church Programme

December is a very busy time in the Church please note key dates listed below. Please join us as we celebrate Christ's birth.

From Nativity 2008

Sat 5th Dec
Broadwalk Shopping Centre - Churches Together Carol Singing 11 to 12.

Tue 8th Dec
Teen Night Christmas Party 7:00pm to 8:00pm

Sat 12th Dec
Church Christmas Table Top Sale 9 to 12 - Grab a bargain and a free cup of tea. Donations always appreciated.

Sat 12th Dec
FAFF - Christmas Party in the church hall. Keep an eye out for Santa. 6:30pm until ?. Bring and share!

Sat 19th Dec
Sunday School Christmas Ice Skating Trip

Sun 20th Dec
10:30 - Church Nativity Service with Refreshments afterwards.

6:00pm - Carols by Candlelight

Mon 21st Dec
Perrets Park - Churches together Carols under the stars - 6:30 to 7:30

Thu 24th Dec
Candlelight Service 11:15pm to 12:15pm

Fri 25th Dec
Informal Christmas Day Service 10:30 to 11:15am

Sun 27th Dec
Normal Sunday Morning Service Only

FAFF 2009

Fellowship and Family Fun 2009 Schedule - Please join us at any of the events!

Thurs 26th Feb 7:pm
Chinese meal at Jo's - Only big kids allowed for this.

Sat 28th Mar 6:30pm
Film night at church - please arrive on time and bring lots of treats. Especially chocolate raisans (my fav!)

Sat 25th April - 6:30pm
Hollywood Bowl - Always a crowd pleaser! Don't forget to wear clean socks:)

Sat 30th May - 6:30pm
Quiz Night - Bring some nibbles to share

Sat 27th June - 3:00pm
Afternoon Cream Teas at Church or Bees Tea Gardens

Sat 25th July - 6:30pm
BBQ - bring your smoke shields as I prepare old smokey! Please bring a salad and someone who knows how to bbq!

Sat 29th Aug - 11:00am
Blaise Castle - Walk and Picnic - Please sign up for a lift! (thats to the site, not to carry you around whilst there)

Sat 26th Sep - 2:00pm
Chew Valley Lake Walk - Bring some food for the ducks.

Sat 31st Oct - 11:00am
Clarks Village - Christmas Shopping Trip (didn't we just have Christmas)

Sat 28th Nov - 6:30pm
Beetle Drive at Church - This is a game played on paper not racing around the estate in a VW. Don't forget some beetle nibbles.

Sat 12th Dec - 6:30pm
Church Christmas Party - Bring and share supper, a visit from Santa and be prepared to play lots of games!

Church of the Nazarene
Broadwalk, Knowle Park, Bristol BS4 2RD

Tallest Christmas cake - Built in India!

An Indian bakery has attempted to break a world record by making a cake 32ft (9.75m) tall to celebrate Christmas.
The cake was made by a bakery in the city of Kochi (Cochin) in the southern Indian state of Kerala, and was supported by iron pipes and wooden planks in an effort to make it stable.
Organiser Jayachandran Pillai told reporters that the cake took 15 days to make and weighed over 550kg.
"We planned to make this Christmas season something different [and] therefore, we planned to make an amazing cake.
"We searched on the internet and we got information about a cake of 30ft height. So we planned to make a cake 32ft high to make the record.
"We made this cake and right now it is a grand success and we got [a] very good response from the public," Mr Pillai said.
The cake is on display until Christmas Eve, and will then be cut and distributed to orphans across the city. There was no confirmation of whether the bakers officially broke a world record.

Poet Steve Turner reassembles the Nativity Cast for Easter!

Take the wise men to the Emperor’s palace.
Wash their hands in water.
Get them to say something about truth.
Does anyone know any good Jewish jokes?
The one about a carpenter
who thought he was a King?
The one about the Saviour
who couldn’t save himself?
The shepherds should stand with the chorus.
They have a big production number -
‘Barabbas, We Love You Baby’.
Mary? She can move to the front.
We have a special section reserved
for family and close friends.
Tell her that we had to cut the manger up.
We needed the wood for something else.
The star I’m afraid I can’t use.
There are no stars in this show.
The sky turns black with sorrow.
The earth shakes with terror.
Hold on to the frankincense.
We’ll need that for the garden scene.
Angels? He could do with some angels.
Avenging angels.
Merciful angels.
He could really do with some angels.
Baby Jesus.
Step this way please.
My! How you’ve grown!

Christians in Iraq - and we thought we were having a difficult Christmas!

Christians in Iraq remain under siege, said the head of the North American branch of Open Doors on Monday.
Open Doors, which serves the international persecuted church, is one of a handful of Christian agencies working with vulnerable communities in Iraq in spite of widespread instability.
While there were around 550,000 Christians in the country prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein, Open Doors said it was difficult to determine how many were still there today as a succession of attacks targeted specifically at Christians has prompted many of them to leave.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that at least two million Iraqis have fled the country since the US-led invasion in 2003, while a further two million remain displaced within Iraq, mainly in the northern provinces.
The northern city of Mosul has been particularly hard hit this year. The latest wave of attacks in October left at least 25 Christians dead and saw thousands more flee the city. Earlier in the year, a number of churches were bombed by Islamic extremists in what Iraqi church leaders and rights groups believe is part of a deliberate campaign to wipe out the Christian population in Iraq.
“The situation continues to grow grimmer for the targeted minority Christian community in Iraq, especially in Mosul,” said Carl Moeller, head of Open Doors USA.
Open Doors is providing the remaining Christians with Bibles and other resources to help them live out their faith.
"The marginalised people of Iraq desperately need our support,” said Moeller. “Pray that 2009 will be the year when the violence will decrease and Christians will not be killed and kidnapped simply for their belief in Jesus Christ."
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a statement last week that although there had been some reduction in violence in Iraq since its last report on the country in May 2007, it remained “seriously concerned about severe violations of religious freedom there”.
“The situation is dire for Iraq's smallest religious minorities, including Chaldo-Assyrian Christians, other Christians, Sabean Mandaeans, and Yazidis, who face a threat to their very existence in the country,” the USCIRF said.

Christmas Song - The Animals

Wish I could be home for Christmas! Great video.

Saturday 13th December 2008 - What a Day!

Wake up in the morning to the smell of freshly baked cakes. Round everyone up and off to church for the monthly table top sale. After donating some cakes for the event, we spend an hour going around chatting, drinking coffee and buying more things than we came in with????!!!
But there's no time to dwell. Race home and have some lunch, but wait, it's already time to throw on some thick socks and meet back at the church for the ice skating trip. Get there on time to discuss how bad we ll are at this then proceed to stumble around the rink for a couple of hours before Chris races around telling everyone it's time to leave for the next event!
Get home at 5:15 to change put icing on some more cakes (and a trip to the store for some double cream).
Off to church again, this time for the Christmas Party. I'm starving so find myself stood by the food grazing nonchalantly. Santa Ray came right on time for the kids all surrounded by a few great games. Oh look mat the time! 8:30 and we are all exhausted.
Slept like a log! (do logs sleep? maybe it used to be dog?)
Well done to all the organisers who put the time in to making everything go so well and it was announced this morning that the Table Top Sale made a record profit!

The Advent Conspiracy!

The US-based movement Advent Conspiracy is inviting churches around the world to observe the Christmas season with a little less glitter, a little less debt and a lot more love.
Hundreds of churches in the US and now some in the UK and Africa are joining the movement to de-commercialise Christmas and restore it back to its true purpose of celebrating the birth of Christ.
"What if Christmas became a world-changing event again?" the creators of Advent Conspiracy pose. Everyone wants Christmas to be meaningful but instead it becomes shop, shop, shop, credit cards, traffic jams, to do lists, useless gifts, then off to church," says a promotional video. In the end, people are just left with debt, gifts to return and an empty feeling of missed purpose.
For many, including pastors, Christmas has become a painful holiday especially when trying to lead their congregations in worship amid the distractions and stress of the consumer culture.
"[We] lamented that we hated Christmas," said Pastor Rick McKinley of Imago Dei Community Church in Portland, Oregon, during his latest sermon on Sunday. We hated the fact that we were talking about one of the pinnacles of theology – that here is God becoming flesh and entering our world to bring salvation and peace and restore His whole creation, While we preach and declare and get all excited about that, the truth is the message just becomes white noise because within our cultural context there's so much hecticness that's involved around the holidays," he added.
On top of the consumer culture, Christians have not effectively conveyed the message of Christmas to the public.
"We started looking at what the Church's response has been," McKinley said as he recalled what he and a few other pastors discussed three years ago. "It has been to critique the culture for not talking about Jesus or saying Merry Christmas. So there's this idea that when I'm running through the mall ... [people] should tell me Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays. That's a very lame place for the church to draw a line in the sand," the Portland church pastor said.

Mr Christmas - Andy Park feels the pinch!

A man who has celebrated Christmas every day for the last 14 years with a full roast dinner, champagne and presents is scaling back his celebrations because of the credit crunch, it was revealed today.

Andy Park, known as Mr Christmas, has munched his way through 117,600 sprouts, quaffed 5,110 bottles of Moet, and sent himself more than 230,000 Christmas cards since his festive fetish began.
But this year the 44-year-old electrician, from Melksham, Wiltshire, is having to make swingeing cuts to keep his unique devotion to Yuletide on the road.

Divorced Mr Park said today: 'I've been through 37 electric ovens and worn out 23 video recorders by watching the Queen's Speech every day. I've also sent myself 235,206 Christmas cards. But these days the postage is so dear I'm having to deliver them myself.
'The credit crunch is getting to me big time and I may even have to cut out the champagne and start singing for my Christmas dinner.

'The lunch with all the trimmings and alcohol is costing in excess of £150 a week, but I'm fighting hard not to let the financial crisis ruin the celebrations.
'I'm not being tight but a few of the little extras are having to go. I'm only having one Christmas tree this year, instead of two, and I'm cutting back on the Christmas lights because of energy bills. I used to get a 14lb turkey, now I'm going for a 9lb one. I refuse to compromise on champagne and always have Moet, but now I'm having to make it last two days.'
Every morning since July 14 1994, the father of one has breakfasted on mince pies and sherry, before opening the presents he has bought for himself. Then he eats a full roast turkey lunch and watches the Queen's Speech on video, his favourite being her 'annus horribilis' address. When he last took stock of his intake in October, Mr Park calculated that he had consumed 5,110 turkeys, 94,080 mince pies, 28,224 roast potatoes, and opened 204,400 Christmas crackers. This December 25 he will be buying himself a new suit, but in a more economically secure year he treated himself to a Mercedes. Mr Park is hoping the situation improves so he can pay the £70,000 an undertaker has quoted him for a Christmas themed funeral. The plans demands that all mourners dress as Father Christmas, watch the Queen's Speech on a giant screen, and say goodbye to Mr Park in a coffin full of Brussels sprouts. Noddy Holder, of Slade, will also be asked to sing the band's famous festive hit, Merry Christmas Everybody. Explaining the moment his life changed, Mr Park said: 'I'll never forget the day it started. The sun was shining, but I was just feeling fed up and bored, so I went home and put the decorations up. Suddenly I was happy. I thought, this is fun. So I did it again the next day, and the day after that.
'Since then my routine every day has been to get up and have seven or eight mince pies and glass of sherry for breakfast. After that I open the presents I've wrapped for myself. Later, after I've gone out to work, I'll maybe watch a Christmas film like The Great Escape.
'People do think I'm crackers, but I enjoy treating myself and I'm the only one in the world who does it. Others have tried to copy me, but they can't last. When people come to my house it turns a sad face into a smiling one, and the happiness stays with them. My daughter used to love celebrating it with me but she's in her 20s now and people started teasing her a bit. I think her dad was a bit of an embarrassment.'

Our Busy Christmas Season - Join in at anytime!

29th Nov 11:00 - FAFF invades the Cadbury Centre! Buying gifts for the webmaster for doing such a fine job I'm sure :)

9th Dec - Teen Christmas Party (last teen night for holidays)

13th Dec - 9-12 Table Top Sale - Free refreshments and lots of Christmas Bargains! 11 shopping days to go!

From FAFF Christmas Party 2007

13th Dec - FAFF Christmas Party 6pm - Bring and Share! Visit from Santa for the kids! Always a lot of fun!

19th Dec - 6:30pm - Carols in Perrots Park - Churches Together

From Nativity Play 2007

21st Dec 10:30 Service - Children's Nativity Play! One day only, don't miss this wonderful production!!!

21st Dec 6:00pm - Carols by Candlelight - and you don't have to be named Carol to attend!

24th Dec - Midnight Service - 11:00pm - Cup of Tea Service 11:15 to 12:15am

25th Dec - 10:30 - Short Christmas Service

6th Jan - Teen Club starts back up!

FAFF - Fellowship and Family Fun

Church of the Nazarene

Broadwalk, Knowle Park, Bristol BS4 2RD
Fellowship and Family Fun (F.A.F.F.) – 2008

Date & Time Function Information

Feb 21st - 6.30

Chinese Meal at Jo’s restaurant. Sorry kids adults only! Meet at Church and sign the list if you need a lift. Delicious food!!
March 29th - 6.30

Bowling at Hollywood Bowl, Avonmeads. Family bowling night. Please sign list so we know how many to book for & meet at church. An absolute blast last year, watch out for Pastor's competitive streak!
April 26th – 6.30

Quiz Night - Meet at Church & please bring nibbles. Who wants to be a nibblionaire?
May 31st –10.00

Visit to Wells Market - Meet at church & sign list if you need a lift and if you need help eating or carrying all the wonderful things they have on offer.
June 28th – 3.00

Walk at Weston-Super-Mare & fish ‘n’ chip supper. Meet at church & sign list if you need a lift. aka Weston-Super-Mud but not when the tide's in.
July 26th – 6.00

BBQ and entertainment. BBQ food provided. Please bring salads. Don't let me do the BBQ again. I burned everything including the grill!!
Aug 30th – 11.00

Walk at Burrington Combe to visit ‘Rock of Ages’. Meet at church & sign list if you need a lift. Refreshments available at cafe and chairs (we hope!!)
Sept 27th – 10.30

Brunch Breakfast will be served in the Church hall. Food provided but donations towards cost would be appreciated. That's money not ideas on how to spend less please! :)
Oct 25th – 6.30

Beetle Drive Meet in church hall & please bring nibbles (for the ants)
Nov 29th – 11.00

Trip to Cadbury Garden Centre - Meet in church hall & sign the list if you need a lift. Time to get the Christmas shopping done. My list is available at the back of the Church Hall also.
Dec 13th – 6.00

Christmas Party Meet in Church hall. Bring & share supper, party games & visit from Santa! Always a family favorite with presents for all the children.

The above events are organised so we as a Church can meet for fun & fellowship, and also provide outreach opportunities for our families, friends & others. Events are open to everyone in the Church, male, female, young or old!

If you would like more details please speak to Karon, Mary or Esther.

Extreme Christmas Lights!

Wizards-of-Winter-Christmas-Lights - Get Video Code

Wassail

A festive occasion on which toasts are drunk; the ale or wine in which such toasts are made.

In Saxon times you would have used the original form of this word, was hail, to greet or say goodbye to somebody; it literally meant “be in good health”. By the twelfth century, it had become the salutation you offered as a toast, to which the standard reply was drinc hail, “drink good health”. (Hail is an older form of our modern word hale, “health; well-being” and is also closely connected with our word hail meaning “to salute, greet, welcome”.) The toast seems to have come over with the Danes; by the twelfth century the Norman conquerors of Britain regarded it as one of the most characteristic sayings of the country. Later on, the word came to be used also for the drink in which the toast was offered, especially the spiced ale or mulled wine that was drunk on Christmas Eve or Twelfth Night. In the western counties of Britain, the tradition grew up on Twelfth Night of toasting the good health of the apple trees that would bear the crop from which next year’s cider would be made. Pieces of bread soaked in cider were placed in the crooks of trees, guns were fired to ward off evil spirits, and special songs were sung:

Let every man take off his hat
And shout out to th'old apple tree
Old apple tree we wassail thee
And hoping thou will bear.

Ceremonies like these have almost entirely died out, though one or two are self-consciously kept alive in Somerset.

Twas the month before christmas!

American references but quite clever:

Twas the month before Christmas when all through our land,
Not a Christian was praying nor taking a stand.

Why the PC Police had taken away,
The reason for Christmas - no one could say.

The children were told by their schools not to sing,
About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.

It might hurt people’s feelings, the teachers would say
December 25th is just a ” Holiday “.

Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit
Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!

CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod
Something was changing, something quite odd!

Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa
In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.

As Targets are hanging their trees upside down
At Lowe’s the word Christmas - was no where to be found.

At K-Mart and Staples and Penny’s and Sears
You won’t hear the word Christmas; it won’t touch your ears.

Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-is-ty
Are words that were used to intimidate me.

Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen
On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !

At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter
To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.

And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith
Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace

The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded
The reason for the season, stopped before it started.

So as you celebrate “Winter Break” under your “Dream Tree”
Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.

Choose your words carefully, choose what you say
Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS, not Happy Holiday !

A Few Jokes

Christmas: When you exchange hellos with strangers and good buys with friends.
Question: What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus?Answer: Claustrophobic.
Question: Why was Santa's little helper depressed?Because he had low elf esteem.
Q: Why is Christmas just like a day at the office ?A: You do all the work and the fat guy with the suit gets all the credit.
What did the bald man say when he got a comb for Christmas ?Thanks, I'll never part with it !
How many elves does it take to change a light bulb? Ten! One to change the light bulb and nine to stand on each other’s shoulders!

Christmas Today

Christmas in church
Advent is the period of preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus and begins on Sunday nearest to 30th November. The word Advent comes from the Latin adventus meaning coming. Traditionally it is a penitential season but is no longer kept with the strictness of Lent and Christians are no longer required to fast.
Advent wreaths are popular especially in churches. They are made with fir branches and four candles. A candle is lit each Sunday during Advent.
Christmas Day is the Christian festival most celebrated by non-churchgoers, and churches are often completely full for the service late on Christmas Eve.
Father Christmas
An important part of today's Christmas is the myth of Father Christmas (called Santa Claus in America). His origins are in Christian and European tradition. But the visual image of Father Christmas that we have today is the one popularised by American card-makers in the Victorian era. Traditionally, Father Christmas visits houses at midnight on Christmas Eve, coming down the chimney to leave presents. Children hang up stockings - nowadays usually large socks with Christmas patterns knitted into them - for Father Christmas to fill with little toys and presents ('stocking fillers'). Some traditions surrounding Father Christmas pre-date Christianity. His sleigh, pulled by reindeer, is left over from Scandinavian mythology. The practice of leaving mince pies and a glass of milk or brandy for him on Christmas Eve may be a remnant of Pagan sacrifices made to mark the end of winter and the coming of spring.
The USA has the figure of Santa Claus, whose name comes from Saint Nicholas via the Dutch Sinterklaas. Saint Nicholas of Myra (a location in modern-day Turkey) is, among other things, the patron saint of sailors. A famous story has him anonymously delivering bags of gold coins to a man who could not afford dowry for his daughters to get married. Some versions of this story even have Saint Nick dropping the bags down the chimney.
In modern times the figures of Father Christmas and Santa Claus are indistinguishable.
Christmas today
Today, only around 60 percent of people in the UK are Christian but Christmas remains the biggest holiday in the calendar. It is a largely secular holiday, with the main element the exchange of gifts on Christmas day.
In previous centuries the Church worried about Pagan influence on the Christian festival, but today ethical considerations are focused on the over-commercialism of the holiday with each person in the UK spending on average £400 on Christmas related purchases.
Protests against consumerism have been made by Christians and non-Christians such as 'Buy Nothing Christmas', encouraging people to spend time with their families instead of spending money on them.
With carol concerts, Christmas trees, office parties, midnight mass, and television programmes, today's festival has elements of the Pagan, Christian and folk traditions.
Christmas remains a time to forget about the long dark days and celebrate with friends and family.

A Mexican Christmas

There are nine days of festivals in Mexico which make up the Christmas celebration. These are called the Posadas. They start on December 16th and end on December 24th. Posadas means inn or place to lodge. The festival comemorates the journey taken by Mary and Joseph when they went to Bethlehem.
On the night of the 16th the first procession is formed with two young children at the front. They carry a litter made from twigs which carry figures of the nativity. When they arrive at the house which is giving the posadas for that night they knock on the door and sing a song begging for lodging. The people inside sing a reply saying that the house is not an inn. The children keep on pleading for lodging and eventually persuade those in the house to let them in.
When the children are finally let in they place the figures on the altar and they all sing and say prayers.
The most exciting part of the celebration comes now...the breaking of the pinata. A pinata is a clay or papier mache shape filled with sweets and toys. It is hung up high and dangles on a long string. In a games the children have sticks and try to break the pinata to release the toys and sweets held within.

The same process is repeated for eight nights. The final night, Christmas Eve is a huge event ending with midnight fireworks, whistles and beels. Most people then go to church to celbrate the Misa del Gallo (Mass of the Cock, could that be something to do with it being very early in the morning?). Dinner is served after mass and that always includes bunuelos...pancake served with a sort of maple syrup.

Christmas - Past - Part 2

Traditions
Christmas has always been a strange combination of Christian, Pagan and folk traditions. As far back as 389 AD, St Gregory Nazianzen (one of the Four Fathers of the Greek Church) warned against 'feasting in excess, dancing and crowning the doors'. The Church was already finding it hard to bury the Pagan remnants of the midwinter festival.
Medieval
During the medieval period (c.400AD - c.1400AD) Christmas was a time for feasting and merrymaking. It was a predominantly secular festival but contained some religious elements.
Medieval Christmas lasted 12 days from Christmas Eve on 24th December, until the Epiphany (Twelfth Night) on 6th January. Epiphany comes from a Greek word that means 'to show', meaning the time when Jesus was revealed to the world. Even up until the 1800s the Epiphany was at least as big a celebration as Christmas day.
Many Pagan traditions had been brought to Britain by the invading Roman soldiers. These included covering houses in greenery and bawdy partying that had its roots in the unruly festival of Saturnalia.
The Church attempted to curb Pagan practices and popular customs were given Christian meaning. Carols that had started as Pagan songs for celebrations such as midsummer and harvest were taken up by the Church. By the late medieval period the singing of Christmas carols had become a tradition.
The Church also injected Christian meaning into the use of holly, making it a symbol for Jesus' crown of thorns. According to one legend, the holly's branches were woven into a painful crown and placed on Christ's head by Roman soldiers who mocked him, chanting: "Hail King of the Jews." Holly berries used to be white but Christ's blood left them with a permanent crimson stain.
Another legend is about a little orphan boy who was living with shepherds when the angels came to announce Jesus' birth. The child wove a crown of holly for the newborn baby's head. But when he presented it, he became ashamed of his gift and started to cry. Miraculously the baby Jesus reached out and touched the crown. It began to sparkle and the orphan's tears turned into beautiful scarlet berries.
Ban on Christmas
From the middle of the 17th century until the early 18th century the Christian Puritans suppressed Christmas celebrations in Europe and America.
The Puritan movement began during the reign of Queen Elizabeth in England (1558-1603). They believed in strict moral codes, plenty of prayer and close following of New Testament scripture.
As the date of Christ's birth is not in the Gospels the Puritans thought that Christmas was too strongly linked to the Pagan Roman festival and were opposed to all celebration of it, particularly the lively, boozy celebrations inherited from Saturnalia. In 1644 all Christmas activities were banned in England. This included decorating houses with evergreens and eating mince pies.

The crib and the nativity play
The telling of the Christmas story has been an important part of the Christianisation of Christmas. One way that the Christmas story has been maintained is through the crib, a model of the manger that Jesus was born in.
The tradition of crib making dates back to at least 400 AD when Pope Sixtus III had one built in Rome. In many parts of Europe in the 18th century crib making was an important craft form. This was not the case in England until much later, suggesting that British Christmases were less Christian than those in other parts of Europe.
The tradition of Nativity plays began in churches where they were used to illustrate the Christmas story as told in the Bible.

Victorian Christmas
After a lull in Christmas celebrations the festival returned with a bang in the Victorian Era (1837-1901). The Victorian Christmas was based on nostalgia for Christmases past. Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843) inspired ideals of what Christmas should be, capturing the imagination of the British and American middle classes. This group had money to spend and made Christmas a special time for the family.
The Victorians gave us the kind of Christmas we know today, reviving the tradition of carol singing, borrowing the practice of card giving from St. Valentine's day and popularising the Christmas tree.
Although the Victorians attempted to revive the Christmas of medieval Britain, many of the new traditions were Anglo-American inventions. From the 1950s, carol singing was revived by ministers, particularly in America, who incorporated them into Christmas celebrations in the Church. Christmas cards were first sent by the British but the Americans, many of whom were on the move and away from their families, picked up the practice because of a cheap postal service and because it was a good way of keeping in contact with people at home.
Christmas trees were a German tradition, brought to Britain and popularised by the royal family. Prince Albert first introduced the Christmas tree into the royal household in Britain in 1834. He was given a tree as a gift by the Queen of Norway which was displayed in Trafalgar Square.

Cradled in a manger, meanly

Cradled in a manger, meanly,
Laid the Son of Man His head;
Sleeping His first earthly slumber
Where the oxen had been fed.
Happy were those shepherds listening
To the holy angel’s word;
Happy they within that stable
Worshipping their infant Lord.

Happy all who hear the message
Of His coming from above;
Happier still who hail His coming,
And with praises greet His love.
Blessèd Saviour, Christ most holy,
In a manger Thou didst rest;
Canst Thou stoop again, yet lower,
And abide within my breast?

Evil things are there before Thee;
In the heart, where they have fed,
Wilt Thou pitifully enter,
Son of Man, and lay Thy head?
Enter, then, O Christ most holy;
Make a Christmas in my heart;
Make a heaven of my manger:
It is heaven where Thou art.

And to those who never listened
To the message of Thy birth,
Who have winter, but no Christmas
Bringing them Thy peace on earth,
Send to these the joyful tidings;
By all people, in each home,
Be there heard the Christmas anthem;
Praise to God, the Christ has come!

George S. Rowe, 1879

Table Top Sale - Saturday 8th December 2007

Last sale of the year some come and get some Christmas bargains. This Saturday 10th from 10:00 to 12:00. Great morning to shop and have a free cup of tea or coffee and some cake. Cake and goods donations warmly appreciated. Volunteers welcome! Church of the Nazarene Broadwalk Knowle Bristol BS4 2RD.