“This Is Halloween” is the opening song to Tim Burton’s 1993 stop-motion animated film, The Nightmare Before Christmas. The movie is set in Halloween Town, a city where the community focuses on Halloween, under the leadership of the Pumpkin King,…
A daughter’s tribute — 50 years later
My brother was 15 and I was 18 when our father died Dec. 4, 1971 — 20 days short of his 46th birthday. Initially it was thought he died of a heart attack; he’d been sick all that previous year….
Four feet, two skates
I don’t think it was Christmastime. Too many years have passed for me to be sure. But I do remember it was cold outside. I was walking from the Stephen Center, the Christian diner operated as a ministry in Tirana,…
Let’s put Herod back into Christmas
In 1936, with war clouds gathering in Europe, author E.B. White wrote the following for The New Yorker: “Shopping in Woolworth’s, in the turbulent days, we saw a little boy put his hand inquiringly on a ten-cent Christ child, part…
Worldliness and wistfulness on the way to Bethlehem 2021
This Advent season, I determined to follow the lead of the BVM, the Blessed Virgin Mary, in “pondering” the Bethlehem story in my heart. So I went back to Luke’s Gospel in the King James Version where I first heard…
Joy to the suffering world
Soon Christians worldwide will celebrate the birth of Christ. Presents will be exchanged. Special songs performed. Friends and families will gather. Lights will brighten the gloom of winter. And while Christmas is more cultural than sacred for many, these traditions quietly…
Why is there still ‘no room’ for so many homeless in America this Christmas?
More than 2,000 years ago, when Jesus was born, there was “no room” for his family in Bethlehem. Likewise, as Christmas 2021 approaches, we have no room for hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans who live in tents, cardboard…
The Worst Christmas Pageant Ever
Christmas season means a lot of things — family, presents, carols, Hallmark movies, the Grinch, lights, Santa, Nativity scenes, stockings hung by the chimney with care, and the dreaded Christmas pageant. Why, oh why, did the church decide turning over…
Christmas joy must be tempered by the cries of our neighbors
Christmas is, for many or most Christians, the most joyous Christian celebration. And it certainly should be a great reason of joy; in fact, according to the Christian tradition, we are celebrating the birth of God’s Son on earth, for…