Items for a Christ-centered Christmas

I love Christmas time.  I love all of the decorations that I place in my home.  The spirit of goodwill is stronger (unless you go to the mall).  Neighbors take time to take goodies to each other.  Kids are excited.  There are many things that help me feel great at this time of the year.  One of things that becomes hard to remember is that this is the Season where many people celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

I love to surround myself with images of the Savior and watch media that helps me remember Him.


I was received a wonderful package in the mail full of things to help my family and I think of the Savior.

First is a beautiful Christus Marble 3" statue.  I was surprised at the detail on such a very small statue.  I am thinking that this would make a great stocking stuffer for my son who will be returning from his mission in the Chile Santiago South Mission on December 29th.  

I watched both "No Ordinary Shepherd" and "He Knows My Name" over the weekend.  "No Ordinary Shepherd" is 22 minutes and "He Knows My Name" is 35 minutes.  The scenes with the Savior healing the afflicted brought tears to my eyes.  Neither video has the best acting, but they bring a very strong spirit of the life and ministry of the Jesus Christ.  I loved that the videos were told through the eyes of children.  

Here are links to the products above.

Christus Statue *  No Ordinary Shepherd * He Knows My Name

The next two items are books about Christmas!

"It's All About Christmas"  is 232 pages.  It is illustrated in an old fashioned style, it's a beautiful book.  It is full of Christmas poetry, stories, jokes, traditions, recipes, quotes, etc.

"Words of Christmas" is a short book.  It focuses on reflections of the words associated with Christmas.  You can sit down and read through it once, but is designed to focus on a word per day starting on December 1st.   The purpose is for the reader to gain a deeper appreciation of Christmas and to discover what it means to the individual.  Some of the words: Family, Giving, Light, Christ, etc.

Links to the books:

All About Christmas * Words of Christmas

The final item in the package is a song book of the music of Janice Kapp Perry.  When I flipped through the book I was surprised that some of my favorite songs were written by her,  There are two sections.  The first has 18 of her best loved songs and the second 28 of her Book of Mormon songs.

She introduces songs in the first section that explain how she came to write that piece.  I love the insight!  The pictures are amazing.  It also includes the piano arrangement to the song.  It makes me want to improve my very limited abilities on the piano and play this inspirations music in my home.

A Songbook for LDS Families