Organizing A Christmas Family Gathering

Organizing A Christmas Family Gathering

Christmas is time to get together and celebrate the family bonding. No matter where all your relatives and friends live, this is one time of the year when they would come down to meet to and spend time together. So…how about organizing a Christmas family gathering that is full of warmth and have fun. You can prepare some really mouthwatering delicacies to treat the guests and several other things to make your party turn out great. Here are some helpful tips:

Most of the family gatherings are usually based on food. So, plan the menu in advance. If you know who likes what, try if you can get those specialties prepared to surprise them.

You need to send out invitations early so that everybody knows the where and when the party is to take place. You may as well include the starting and ending time in the invitation cards.

You can get some help from some of your family members to get the things organized. You may ask some family members to bring along some dessert, side dish or drinks to your place. If you have planned a family get-together then you can freely ask for help as organizing everything alone could be difficult. You have taken the initiative, let others help you too.

You may also organize a gift exchange at the gathering. You may as well mention this in the invitation card. This would make your party more interesting and lively. Remember the music. Get some good music CDs or DVDs and keep them playing to create the perfect ambience for the gathering.

For the kids, you may arrange for some game or a movie. All the kids can enjoy some game in a room, in the presence of an adult. You may give out prizes to the winner. You may even get some good movie DVDs for the kids to watch.

Remember to have all arrangements to accommodate the elderly and the disabled people if any. This time is to relax and cherish the moments, so enjoy the most out of it.

Santa Claus and his helpers

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All About Santa Claus

It's only fitting that, because Santa Claus has the magnificent capability to visit homes around the world in a single night, more than one place would claim to be his home. It is a common belief that Santa hails from the wintry North Pole, but folks in Finland will also tell you that Santa calls that country his home. To prove it, the Finns will even invite you to visit Santa in his workshop before Christmas, or during the year, and talk with Santa Claus as he and his elves busy themselves for their end-of-year Christmas expedition around the globe.

In America, the popularity of the image and legend of Santa Claus can be traced to the poem, “Twas the Night before Christmas,” which was written by Clement Clarke Moore in 1822. In that poem, Moore described St. Nicholas as a jolly fellow who flew from house to house in a sleigh pulled by reindeer and who waited for children to go to bed on Christmas Eve before he came down the chimney to deliver Christmas presents for them.

Following the distribution of that poem, between 1863 and 1886, the popular magazine Harper's Weekly published cartoons by Thomas Nast which depicted Santa as a cheerful fellow with a large, round belly and long, white beard who wore a bright red suit trimmed with white fur. In those cartoons, Santa also held a sack, which was filled with toys for boys and girls, over his shoulder. The cartoons also showed Santa reading letters from good boys and girls, working in his workshop with his elves, checking his list to make sure he had all the required toys, and even showed his wife, Mrs. Claus.

The tradition of Santa Claus was brought to America by Dutch colonists who settled in New York City, which was called New Amsterdam at the time. The real St. Nicholas is said to be a minor saint from the 4th Century with a reputation for generosity and kindness, who gave rise to legends of the many miracles he performed for the poor and unhappy. One of the stories about St. Nicholas is that he saved three poor sisters from being sold into a life of slavery or prostitution by their father. According to the legend, Santa Claus provided the girls with a dowry so they could get married.

The legend of St. Nicholas led hundreds of people to be devoted to him. Consequently, thousands of European churches became dedicated to him. After the Reformation period, however, widespread practice and worship of St. Nicholas disappeared in European countries that were Protestant, except in Holland where the legend of St. Nicholas continued. St. Nicholas was known as Sint Nikolaas, but that was later corrupted to Sinter Klaas.

Dutch colonists took this tradition of Sinter Klaas to New York City where it was adopted using the English translation of Santa Claus. Over time, the Dutch legend of the kindly saint was combined with old Nordic folktales about a magician who punished naughty children and rewarded good ones with presents. This gave rise to the stories that now exist about Santa Claus.

The red and white-trimmed suit of Santa Claus is believed to be the colors that the original St. Nicholas wore because red and white were the colors of the robes worn by traditional bishops. It is also believed that the Coca Cola Company played a role in what is regarded as the popular look of Santa Claus today, through paintings by artist Haddon Sundblom, which were used in some of the company's advertisements between 1931 and 1964.

The Christmas Story

The idea of celebrating Jesus' birth was done to counteract Pagan holidays celebrated in Rome during the Winter Solstice. Church leaders thought Christmas celebrations were more likely to be popular if they coincided with the traditional festivals and merrymaking during the Winter Solstice.

Although some Christmas celebrations are secular, the religious aspect of Christmas remains central to celebrations. This is evident in church services such as Midnight Mass, and primarily in the many forms of the Nativity, or Christmas Story, presented wherever people celebrate Christmas.

That story started in Nazareth, in Galilee, about two thousand years ago. Mary, a young woman, was engaged to a carpenter named Joseph. An angel appeared to her one day and told her she was with child. She couldn't understand how that could happen because due to her circumspect nature, she had not laid in bed with Joseph. The angel explained however, that the child would be special as he would be the Son of God and his name was to be Jesus. Mary and Joseph then got married soon after the angel's appearance, but about the time when Mary was to have the baby, the couple had to travel far away to Bethlehem, Joseph's birthplace, to pay a special tax.

It was difficult for them to find a place to stay because many other people were in Bethlehem to pay their taxes. After many rejections, one innkeeper offered a room in his stable where they could spend the night. That's where Jesus, the Holy Child and Son of God, was born and then wrapped in bundles of cloth and placed in a manger for a cradle.

In the same hours that Mary was giving birth, shepherds who were in a field that overlooked Bethlehem saw an extremely bright star over the sky in Bethlehem. They had never seen anything like it and had feelings of curiosity and scariness. An angel appeared and told them the “good news” that the Son of
God had been born in Bethlehem.

The shepherds left their flocks to go to Bethlehem to find the baby. When they reached the stable, they were filled with immense joy at seeing Jesus. They fell to their knees and worshipped Him. They also told Mary and Joseph about the bright star and the angel appearing to say Jesus would be the Savior of the world.

The bright star was also seen by Wise Men in the East. The Wise Men, who studied the stars, learned that a new and great ruler would appear whenever an extraordinarily bright star appeared in the sky. Three of them therefore set out to find the new ruler. They first visited King Herod in Jerusalem because they thought the child would be born in the palace. But when they asked to see the child who would be the new ruler, King Herod was very worried as he thought he would be removed from the throne. King Herod told the Wise Men that when they found the baby, they should return and tell him so that he could also worship the baby.

The Wise Men used the star as a guide to go to Bethlehem where they found Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus who they worshipped and offered gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The Wise Men are celebrated in some Christmas celebrations on January 6, known as the Epiphany, to mark the date when they found Jesus. Later in the night the three Wise Men had a dream in which an angel told them that King Herod wanted to kill Baby Jesus. They left Bethlehem to return to the East but didn't return to Jerusalem to tell King Herod where they had found the child.

Joseph also had a dream soon after the Wise Men left in which an angel appeared and told him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt because Herod had ordered that Jesus be killed. In an effort to kill Jesus after the Wise Men did not return to inform him of the baby's whereabouts, Herod later ordered that all baby boys in Bethlehem should be killed, but by then Mary and Joseph had left with Baby Jesus.