Can you identify the five Christmas trees in the photos below? You will find the answers at the end of the post. And the grand prize for guessing all five trees correctly is   —   a nice, warm, fuzzy Christmas feeling all day long. Tell us how you did in the comments below.

Christmas Tree #1:

Christmas Tree #2:

Christmas Tree #3:

Christmas Tree #4:

Christmas Tree #5:

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Here is a Christmas poem by Keith Patman from Jeff Johnson’s Centerpoint – Poetry & Music For Christmas CD. (“An album created to prepare oneself for the celebration of Christ’s birth over the entire Advent season. Centerpoint features Johnson’s music score of traditional and original Christmas melodies (which includes flutist, Brian Dunning) with poetry by Keith Patman read by Dallas McKennon. McKennon is famous for his character voice work with Walt Disney Productions.”)

“SNOW” – by Keith Patman (©1980)

Was it a cold awakening Christmas morning
In a wooden trough,
In spite of straw and swaddling clothes and angel songs?
That was not to be the last time you’d be laid upon the wood
(There were Herods, Judases from the start
Among the stars and shepherds).
And did they smile, those simple folk,
And kiss your tiny hands and weep delight?
They’d touch those hands again someday,
Believing you through cracks and scars.
Then oh! the million Christmas mornings
When you’d lie, a babe again,
Beneath a million million trees
And hear the countless tongues chanting your name.
And oh! the white snow on black shingles
Where icy crystals capture windows
And fires glow and mistletoe is wreathed and strung.
But ah . . . will they remember crimson
Dripping from the iron nails
And will they pray and will they know
A whiter white than
Snow?

HT: Rusty Lopez at New Covenant

Click here for poems by Ray Fowler.
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(Note: Sam’s Christmas guitar arrangements below!)

My son, Sam, wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas from him and his guitar. Sam is in the eighth grade and just started playing guitar about two years ago. He worked hard doing lawn jobs over the last two summers and was able to save up enough money to buy himself his own brand, spankin’ new Martin D-15 at the end of this summer. Here he is with his new guitar.

I have been teaching him what I know, and he also studied with acoustic guitar wizard Brooks Williams this summer. Anyways, here are three of Sam’s original fingerstyle acoustic guitar arrangements played by Sam for you on his very own Martin D-15. They are all good, but my favorite of these is definitely Feliz Navidad — a nice spunky version with a great feel. Merry Christmas all and enjoy! And remember, you heard him here first!

• Go Tell It on the Mountain

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• Away in a Manger

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• Feliz Navidad

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Related posts:
    • Fowler Family Christmas Project
    • Free Christmas Music MP3 Downloads
    • Click here for more Christmas related posts.

The Feels Like Christmas site is offering free Christmas music MP3 downloads. All of the songs were submitted by the artists and are completely legal for free downloading.

One of my great joys in life is listening to (and playing) fingerstyle acoustic guitar, so my first download was this spirited arrangement of “Deck the Halls” by guitarist John Morgan from his Capture the Night CD. I like it so much I will probably end up buying the whole CD for Christmas this year.

(Click the play button below to hear a sample; the full version is available for download here)

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Feels Like Christmas has broken all the songs on their site into various categories for easy browsing:

• Vocal versions of contemporary Christmas songs
• Vocal versions of traditional Christmas songs
• Instrumental versions of contemporary Christmas songs
• Instrumental versions of traditional Christmas songs (1)
• Instrumental versions of traditional Christmas songs (2)

Happy browsing and a merry Christmas!

Related post: A Very Merry Guitar Christmas from Sam Fowler
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You know the type. In fact, maybe you are one yourself! I am talking about people who attend church only twice a year, usually at Christmas and Easter.

There is a whole slew of jokes about them, including the one about the person who complained to the pastor on the way out of the service: “Every time I come to church, you are always talking about the same thing. It’s always either the birth of Jesus or his resurrection!”

I was talking with a pastor friend this week who shared with me that one person on his way out of church this past Easter Sunday greeted him with a hearty: “Merry Christmas!” Whoops, wrong holiday.

And then you’ve got to appreciate the honesty of the couple who told my wife on their way out from our Easter service, “See you next year!”

You know, sometimes you just have to laugh.

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The Nativity Story was released on DVD today in the stores. If you did not see this movie back in December, let me recommend it to you as a biblically faithful, historically accurate and artistically sensitive portrayal of the events surrounding the birth of Christ. Seeing this movie in the theater was one of the highlights of this past year’s Christmas for our family.

I was surprised and disappointed that the movie did not do very well at the box office. Christianity Today has an article here discussing the timing of the film and the rushed schedule that did not allow for adequate publicity or proper promotion.

Regardless of box office performance, this is a beautifully made film that deserves to be seen by many more people now that it has come out on DVD. We will certainly be picking up a copy and making it a part of our Christmas celebration each year.

Okay, the Narnia Christmas series of messages from Christmas 2005 is now up and ready for viewing. You will find the following three messages under the Sermons tab at the top of the blog.

• The Lion is a Lamb – Revelation 5:1-14
• Always Winter, Never Christmas? – Galatians 3:10,21-23, 4:4-5
• The Cradle, the Cross and the Wardrobe – Matthew 1:21

Click here for more Narnia related posts.
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