A happy story for a pre-Christmas Monday
Children all over the world write letters to Santa Claus asking for presents, but Hope Baldwin, a fifth-grader at St. Monica School, has a reminder for them.
“We get gifts on Christmas, on Jesus’ birthday, to remind us what a gift he was to us,†said Hope, 10, of Kalamazoo. “A lot of kids forget that. If Jesus had never been born, we wouldn’t even have Christmas.â€
Hope and 25 of her classmates at the Catholic school all wrote letters this year to the Christ child instead of to the chubby man in the red suit. They didn’t ask for a thing — the kids detailed the various ways their families celebrate Christ’s birth and poured heartfelt thoughts about Jesus onto paper, expressing love, appreciation and spirituality beyond their years.
Hope told baby Jesus in her letter that he is the true meaning of Christmas. “Some people get carried away with presents and Santa Claus,†she wrote. “They forget what Christmas is really about. … Jesus, you gave everything you had for me, including your life. That’s why I celebrate your birth on Christmas day.â€
I’m sure the ACLU or some other far left group will have a problem with this, even though it is a private school.
It is, indeed, very encouraging to see these young children understand the trye meaning of Christmas, which I think unfortunately gets lost, even for many Christians. I hope my efforts can help my kids to understand this truth as well. The over-commercialization of Christmas, all in the name of making a quick buck, makes me nauseous. Jesus is the reason for the season, not Santa.
Amen Reasic! I am happy to say that my kids wrote to Jesus at their school, and that they were a part of various efforts at their schools to give needy folks a somewhat better Christmas. Each class concentrated on different aspects; collecting money and holding food drives; shopping and making food baskets for the poor, toy collections, and when our youngest was in high school she even went with her classmates dressed as elves to take gifts into Philadelphia to distribute directly to poor there.
We still try to make it our goal to do something like that each year, whether the giving tree at our church or donations to toys for tots; and our children are beginning to do the same with their children!
The spirit of Christmas should be in the giving of love & charity first and foremost!
Merry Christmas to everyone at Pirates Cove!
Couldn’t agree more, Reasic and Trish. One of my two favorites is the scene from A Charlie Brown Christmas (I was the first to ever upload it to Youtube) when Linus takes the stage to tell us what Christmas is all about. Can’t wait to post that on the 24th, as I always do.
That’s my favorite scene too! Merry Christmas Teach!