I love Christmas music! During the month of December, I’m sharing some of my favorite Christmas songs with you. This song, O Little Town of Bethlehem, was requested by my husband because, as he said, we’ve been there! We were chaperones for a high school mission trip to Israel when our son was seventeen — and we’d just found out I was (SURPRISE!) pregnant with our caboose kiddo, Christa, who was born on Christmas Eve 2000.
(Note: Video may need a moment to load.)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19rL_8W3oRU
In Your Words: When you think about it … Christmas is about surprises. I mean, God surprised us — amazed us, really — with the gift of his son, Jesus, who enfolded all of God’s thoughts towards us. All of his desires for reconciliation with us. What was your biggest Christmas surprise?
Christmas Music: O Little Town of Bethlehem Click to Tweet
What was your biggest Christmas surprise? Click to Tweet
Christian Fiction Christmas Giveaway: Win a basketful of Christmas gifts! Click to Tweet 
Love Christian fiction? Here’s the chance to win a Christmas gift from authors Sarah Ladd, Melissa Tagg, Cara Putman, Courtney Walsh, Kristy Cambron, Katie Ganshert & me! The winner will receive 8 novels, as well as other Christmas surprises, including:
- a Christmas in Connecticut DVD
- Peppermint Twist lotion
- a Heartstrings Stringed Quartet CD
- a handmade ceramic hummingbird ornament
- a $5 Starbucks gift card
- a journal
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**Just click on the photo above to go to the Rafflecopter giveaway! The winner will be drawn on Christmas Eve ( limited to U.S. residents only).**
And yes, I am giving away 2 copies of my books — either Wish You Were Here or Catch a Falling Star. All you have to do is answer the question: What is you favorite Christmas tradition?
Comments 11
OMG your little baby-come-lately a teenager ??? !!! Can’t believe it. 🙂
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You’re not the only one, Gloria … you’re not the only one. 😉
My dad is from a town just down the road from Bethlehem. He had the difficult task of informing me that Bethlehem is a city. Not a hill with a few shepherds and an ‘angel’s were here’ sign.
His favourite song is “Go Tell It On The Mountain”. I think Nat King Cole sang that too.
Loved this Beth. It’s so hard to believe your youngest is almost a teenager!! Yikes! I remember when you told me you were expecting her. Look at all that’s happened since then. 🙂 So glad God gave you the perfect Christmas gift that year.
One of my favorite versions of Little Town of Bethlehem is Amy Grant’s very upbeat one. It’s going through my head even now. 🙂
My biggest surprise was that I found the truest reverence for our Lord and Saviour among hard and violent men preparing for lawful mayhem.
And I suspect the feeling was mutual.
“O Little Town” has long been one of my favourite carols. The contrast of light and dark is magic, especially to one whose mantra was once “fear the night, for I am in it”.
That the darkness – the profound darkness of an ancient desert night – contains the light that will forever banish Death and Evil touches a glowing transcendence. I imagine the very air carrying a phosphorescence, like a boat’s wake in a tropical midnight sea.
What a lovely Christmas surprise for you! It kind of puts the hustle and bustle into perspective when you’re focused on preparing for a Christmas birth. I imagine you know a little of what it felt like for Mary to hold a newborn on Christmas. Wonderful!
Nat King Cole! I love him.
Honestly, I feel like this whole past year has been one of surprise and unexpected good stuff. But this Christmas, I’d like to be re-surprised by the joy and peace that come only from Christ. It’s so easy for me to slip into putting my hope and security in other people, stuff, dreams and pursuits…but at the end of the day, no matter how AWESOME those things are, they aren’t going to fill me up the way Christ does.
Amen to everyone’s comment! My favorite memories of Christmas involve Christmas Carols. Thank you for having them here for us to listen to. And beautiful Christa is a teenager??? No, she’s that cute little girl with cat whiskers. 🙂
Not to be a killjoy, but I pray for the little City of Bethlehem to return to a measure of the joy in new in the midst of hard times long ago. These days most Arab Christians have been driven out, though there are still shepherds in the fields. I’m talking this week w/ a friend in Jerusalem about going again this year. Would love that, can hardly wait.
I love that she was born on Christmas Eve:) I don’t have any big surprises to relate to Christmas, just so many great memories. God has blessed and reblessed and then blessed my family again, and I am ever-so-thankful for His gift:)
My favorite Christmas tradition is making peppernut cookies with my daughter. I think we started when she was two years old; now she’s 23. Sometimes I think I’m ready to stop, but she still wants to make them. We have a good time together.