Cyber Monday and Christians

Today you’ll be seeing lots of media coverage of Cyber Monday, probably describing it as the kickoff of the online holiday shopping season. This site seeks to focus attention on the spiritual heart of Christmas, rather than the commercial hype. Cyber Monday, like the Black Friday “doorbuster” sales, is the product of heavy promotion by some of the largest retail chains. Contrary to much of the spin, it isn’t even the busiest day of the year for online sales.

Rather than adding to the hype and sales for Wal-Mart, Best Buy and other retailers, I felt this would be an opportunity to instead shine a spotlight on the many Christian retailers. These companies and individuals have placed their faith at the center of their lives and their business. I encourage you to visit these web sites and consider supporting these businesses. Keep Christ at the center of Christmas with gifts that uplift your family and your faith.

• Crossings: A major online Christian bookstore. Get your first 5 Christian books for just 99 cents.
• Family Christian Boosktore: Save up to 75 percent at FamilyChristian.com’s Clearance Center.
• JesusBranded.com: Witness Wear. “We make the clothes. You live Jesus Branded.”
• Bibles.Org: Select Bibles in many styles and more than 200 languages.
• Simply Youth Ministry: Teaching help for high school and junior high students from Doug Fields.
• VisionVideo: Quality Christian movies and videos from Gateway Films.
• YouthMinistry.com: Ministry tools for Junior High students.
• Answers In Genesis: Resources for life, family and apologetics.

If you have dealt with other quality Christian web merchants, feel free to share your experiences in the comments.

Christian Christmas Poems

This year we’ll be blogging about many facets of the Christmas season, and pointing to quality sites and information resources for Christians. One subject we haven’t covered previously is Christmas poetry. We’ve reviewed many resources for Christian Christmas poems, and here are a few we’ve found worthwhile:

• Christmas Poems: An extensive collection of Christmas poems compiled by the Marian Center at the University of Dayton.
• Christmas Poems: A nice collection of traditional Christmas poems, some dating as far back as the 14th century.
• Apples 4 The Teacher: Excellent collection of Chirtsmas poems and recitals for children.
• A Holy Christmas – Poems: Richard Fairchild’s excellent collection of Christmas links has a fine poetry section.

Are there any good resources we’ve missed? If so, share them in the comments.