Christmas Games, Songs and Music - Family Fun

Hello Everyone - Below is really fun stuff for Christmas!

- Caroling Song List
- Jake's Family Christmas Tradition - 12 Days of Christmas
- The Real Meaning of the 12 Days of Christmas
- Cayden's (super fun)  Favorite Christmas Video
- Silly Jokes
- The Christmas Story

******************************************************

Cool fun Christmas Carol Song List -
Print out and sing with your family and friends at Christmas Time!  
Free Printable Christmas Carols

***************************************************************************

Twelve Days of Christmas Song / Game (Jake's family Tradition)
Pass out real bells or paper slips numbered 1 - 12  with the appropiate picture of words next to it.  IE.  7 wold be  7 - Swans a Swimming.     Each person will get to sing the part that they are given!!    So 
On the First Day of Christmas my True Love gave to me -   (number 1 person would sing)  "A Partridge in a Pair Tree"     It is really fun - especially if you find bells to ring as you sing.     I went to the dollar store and bought $ bells and marked on the inside.

***********************************************************************

Hidden Meaning of The 12 Days of Christmas -
So when you sing the song you will know what it represented!
 (A Song Written to Preserve the Catholic faith when it was a crime around 1558 - 1829.   The 12 Days were between Dec 25th - Jan 6th when gifts were exchanged.)

My True Love = God   (sent to me)
1  Partridge = Jesus
2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testiment
3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity
4 Calling Birds = Four Gospels  (Mathew, Mark, Luke, John)
5 Golden Rings = First 5 Books in Old Testiment (describing fall from Grace)
6 Geese A-Laying = Six Days of Creation
7 Swans A-Swimming  =  Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit
8 Maids A Milking  =  The Eight Beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing  =  the Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10  Lords A- Leaping  =  The Ten Commandments
11  Pipers Piping  - Eleven Faithful Apostles
12  Drummers Drumming  =  12 Points of Doctrine in the Apostle's Creed 

*************************************************************************

Cayden's Favorite Christmas You Tube Video
Animals Singing Jingle Bells

**************************************************************************

Silly Jokes -
What do you get if Santa goes down a chiney when a fire is going?
Crisp Kringle

What do you get if you cross a yule log with a duck?
A Fire Quacker!

************************************************************************

The Story of Christmas!
Matthew 1:18-25; Matthew 2:1-12; Luke 1:26-38; Luke 2:1-20

Mary, a virgin, was living in Galilee of Nazareth and was engaged to be married to Joseph, a Jewish carpenter. An angel visited her and explained to her that she would conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit. She would carry and give birth to this child and she would name him Jesus.

At first Mary was afraid and troubled by the angel's words. Being a virgin, Mary questioned the angel, "How will this be?" The angel explained that the child would be God's own Son and, therefore, "nothing is impossible with God." Humbled and in awe, Mary believed the angel of the Lord and rejoiced in God her Savior.
Surely Mary reflected with wonder on the words found in Isaiah 7:14 foretelling this event, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." (NIV)

The Birth of Jesus:

While Mary was still engaged to Joseph, she miraculously became pregnant through the Holy Spirit, as foretold to her by the angel. When Mary told Joseph she was pregnant, he had every right to feel disgraced. He knew the child was not his own, and Mary's apparent unfaithfulness carried a grave social stigma. Joseph not only had the right to divorce Mary, under Jewish law she could be put to death by stoning.

Although Joseph's initial reaction was to break the engagement, the appropriate thing for a righteous man to do, he treated Mary with extreme kindness. He did not want to cause her further shame, so he decided to act quietly. But God sent an angel to Joseph in a dream to verify Mary's story and reassure him that his marriage to her was God's will. The angel explained that the child within Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit, that his name would be Jesus and that he was the Messiah, God with us.

When Joseph woke from his dream, he willingly obeyed God and took Mary home to be his wife, in spite of the public humiliation he would face. Perhaps this noble quality is one of the reasons God chose him to be the Messiah's earthly father.
Joseph too must have wondered in awe as he remembered the words found in Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." (NIV)

At that time, Caesar Augustus decreed that a census be taken, and every person in the entire Roman world had to go to his own town to register. Joseph, being of the line of David, was required to go to Bethlehem to register with Mary. While in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus. Probably due to the census, the inn was too crowded, and Mary gave birth in a crude stable. She wrapped the baby in cloths and placed him in a manger.