Christian Christmas: Christmas In Cyberspace

Will “The Nativity Story” become a blockbuster hit like “The Passion of the Christ?” It’s too early to say. But the movie, which arrives in theaters this Friday, Dec. 1, has gained positive feedback from many Christian leaders, who say the filmmakers have taken pains to be faithful to the Gospel accounts of the Christmas miracle.

To help readers learn about the movie, we’ve created a special page on our site with news and reviews of The Nativity Story. It includes links to the official web site for the film, as well as numerous articles in Christian media. There are also links that provide background about an off-screen controversy involving the 16-year-old actress who plays Mary, Keisha Castle-Hughes, is single and pregnant. We’ll keep updating as reviews and box office figures become available, and hope this page will eb a useful resource for Christians who are interested in “The Nativity Story.”

The Advent Log is a tradition similar to that of the Advent wreath, as explained by Rebecca from A Gypsy Caravan. She describes it as a Catholic tradition, but it’s also mentioned on Lutheran and Methodist sites. Here’s an excerpt:

Ours is a birch log, approximately 4 feet in length. It contains a candle hole for each day of Advent, plus one for the Christmas holy day itself. Traditionally, families use purple and pink candles for the Advent log, similar to the candle coloring of Advent wreaths.

Alice from Cottage Blessings was inspired by Rebecca’s account, and provides a photo essay of the creation of her family’s own Advent Log (even the drilling!).

I’m tracking Christ-centered Advent and Christmas blogs, and have found that many of them are being written by Christian homeschooling moms who are also pursuing Internet writing ministries. That includes Everyday Mommy, an engaging blog penned by Jules, a full-time Mom and freelance graphic designer.

The Everyday Mommy blog includes a “Keep Christ in Christmas” section that reinforces the many ways, large and small, that we can maintain our focus on the real “reason for the season.” Jules also offers a beautiful “Keep Christ in Christmas” graphic badge for other bloggers to share the sentiment and spread the Message. Great stuff, and definitely worth a visit, bookmark and/or RSS subscription.

Today we continue our review of some of the most useful Christmas sites. Few Christ-centered holiday sites can match the breadth of A Holy Christmas, a comprehensive directory created by Richard and Charlene Fairchild as part of the Kir-Shalom Christian web ministry.

Richard is a United Church of Canada ordained minister serving the St. Andrew’s Pastoral Charge full time in Golden, British Columbia. Charlene is a retired nurse who does contract website design and copywriting for a small web design team, Bits & Bytes Computing. The Fairchilds offer many resources they have developed themselves, as well as an abundance of categorized links, including articles on holiday stress as well as many celebratory links and even Christmas odds and ends. You’ll find much to explore at A Holy Christmas.

We’ll be featuring some of our favorite Christian Christmas links on the blog, and I wanted to start with one that predates Christmas In Cyberspace. When I first began searching for Christ-centered holiday sites for our directory back in 1996, one of the first sites I found was A Top Ten Christmas at Peggie’s Place, created by Peggie Bohanon of Springfield, Mo. Peggie would later become the editor of the Internet for Christians newsletter, which was a great resource for Christian links.

Peggie describes her site as “The most fun Christian home on the World Wide Web!” This inviting and comprehensive site features pages dedicated to Christmas devotionals and an impressive list of Christmas links, as well as several of Peggie’s famous Top 10 lists. Peggie also now has a Peggie’s Place blog at Blogger. All are worthy resources.

Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is the Sunday nearest November 30 (St. Andrew’s Day) and lasts until Christmas Eve. This year the First Sunday of Advent is December 3. That leaves plenty of time to prepare our hearts and minds for the season, and there are many fine web sites that can help with information on Advent history, traditions and observances.

In reviewing links this fall, I found that many of the best Advent sites are listed under different categories on the Christmas In Cyberspace web site. We’ve pulled some of the best together, along with some fine sites that are new this year, and gathered them in our Advent Resources Page. We hope these will inform and bless our readers this year – especially you!

The Christmas In Cyberspace site has always had a “No Santa Sites” policy. This approach, which is sometimes misunderstood, is designed to distinguish our site from the many secular and commercial sites that feature Santa but leave out Jesus entirely. We wanted to set apart a site for those seeking Christ-centered information about Christmas and Advent traditions and practices.

While the modern Santa Claus has become a commercial icon, the tradition has its origins in the Christian church, with a real person. That’s why I heartily recommend the St. Nicholas Center, a site devoted to “Discovering The Truth About Santa Claus” and highlighting the Christian origins of St. Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra. Here’s a description of the site’s mission and its importance:

St. Nicholas, lover of the poor and patron saint of children, is a model of how Christians are meant to live. As priest and bishop, Nicholas put Jesus Christ at the center of his life and ministry. His concern for children and others in need or danger expressed a love for God which points toward Jesus, the source of true caring and compassion. Embracing St. Nicholas customs can help recover the true center of Christmas – the birth of Jesus. Understanding St. Nicholas as the original and true holiday gift-giver also helps shift focus to giving rather than getting, compassion rather than consumption, need rather than greed. This can help restore balance to increasingly materialistic and stress-filled Advent and Christmas seasons.

Learn more at the St. Nicholas Center web site, which includes an area for kids with games and activities.

“Merry Christmas” is back at Wal-Mart, the company said today. A year after religious groups boycotted Wal-Mart for downplaying the Christian holiday, the company said it has embraced Christmas in its customer greetings, store displays and marketing. An excerpt:

“We, quite frankly, have learned a lesson from last year,” says Wal-Mart spokeswoman Linda Blakley. “We’re not afraid to use the term ‘Merry Christmas.’ We’ll use it early, and we’ll use it often.” Wal-Mart told about 7,000 associates of the plans at a conference last month and “was met with rapturous applause. … We know many of our customers will feel the same,” says John Fleming, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president of marketing.

Executives at Wal-Mart and Macys are encouraging employees to consider wishing customers holiday greetings that are appropriate to their race or religion, including “Happy Kwanzaa” or “Feliz Navidad.”

I’ve recently discovered several blogs dedicated to Christmas and Advent. I didn’t see any last year, so this is great news. One is Advent for Evangelicals, a new blog written by Lindsey from Enjoy The Journey. A recent post provided a complete guide to making your own Advent wreath. Here’s Lindsey’s description of her blog and its mission:

This blog is a spot on the web where I hope to encourage other evangelical Christians to celebrate the Advent season…to worship His coming in beauty and spirit!

O Night Divine is a team blog by a group of six Catholic homeschooling moms, and is described simply as a “blog devoted to the celebration of Christmas.” Some early posts deal with decorating for Advent and having an organized Christmas.

Know of any other Christ-centered Advent or Christmas blogs? If so, please email us and we may feature them in a future post. If you’re looking for ideas for creating a meaningful Advent for your family, you’ll want to check out both these blogs.

Welcome to the Christmas Blog, a companion journal to Christmas In Cyberspace: A Christian Perspective in which we’ll take time each day to share some of our Christ-centered seasonal sites and reflect on Advent and Christmas and what they mean to us. Our prayer is that this exercise will be a faith-building experience for the bloggers and our readers alike.

I’m Rich Miller, a journalist, web developer and Christians. With Christmas in Cyberspace, its sister site Easter In Cyberspace and the Hopewell Methodist Church web site, I seek to bring my skills and faith together and exalt Christ in cyberspace. This is Christmas In Cyberspace’s 10th year guiding Christian web surfers to the very best Christ-centered resources for Christmas and Advent.

We hope this blog wll be a blessing to you this Advent season. Whether you visit the blog home page or subscribe to our posts by email or our RSS feed, we encourage you to make the Easter Blog a part of your daily journey.