December 2017
As the weather grows colder, it’s time to don the jammies, put the tea kettle on, and grab a good book or binge-watch some of your favorite Christmas movies. Here are several of our picks to help you cozy up to the season and be inspired by heartwarming stories of compassion and giving.
INSPIRATIONAL READING
Looking for a great way to prepare your family for the wonder and beauty of Christ during the holidays? You can curl up each night in December with The Christ of Christmas: 31 Days of Devotions by Calvin Miller. You can enjoy reading the daily message – along with the Scripture – and then pray together.
In Jason Wright’s Christmas Jars, rising newspaper reporter Hope Jensen uncovers the secret behind the “Christmas Jars" – glass jars filled with coins and bills anonymously given to people in need. But Hope discovers much more than she bargained for when some unexpected news sets off a chain reaction of kindness.
In his powerful book, The Purpose of Christmas, Rick Warren explains how God designed Christmas to meet your three deepest needs and how understanding and receiving God's three Christmas gifts to you will transform your life forever.
A Chicken Soup for the Soul Christmas brings back the memories of childhood through the eyes of children on Christmas day and inspires good deeds by reminding us how the smallest gesture can truly change a life.
MOVIE NIGHT ROUNDUP
Escape the Christmas retail circus. Advent Conspiracy: Can Christmas Still Change the World? invites individuals, families, groups, and churches to practice compassion instead of consumerism by following four simple but powerful, counter-cultural concepts: Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, and Love All.
With the holidays just around the corner, struggling newlyweds Jim and Della Young are challenged to give each other the perfect gift. Determined to make each of their respective wishes come true, they each make a secret sacrifice. But fate plays a hand in the Gift of the Magi.
The Christmas Shoes bounces between two families: the Layton household, where the father is consumed with his work; and the Andrews home, where the mother has been diagnosed with a fatal heart ailment. The purchase of a pair of red dancing shoes intertwines the lives of these two families.
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey is a story of love, redemption and hope. When a broken-hearted boy loses the treasured wooden nativity set that links him to his dead father, his mother persuades an ill-tempered woodcarver to create a replacement. His making of the new nativity set takes their relationships to unexpected places.
Don’t worry, Grandma hasn’t left the Christmas port out; Lucy has only found a portal in the spare bedroom that leads to the mythical land of Narnia, in the C.S. Lewis classic Narnia: The Lion,The Witch and The Wardrobe.
After getting into a brawl with a referee at his son's basketball game, veteran sports anchor Bruce Dalton is sentenced to community service as a Salvation Army bell ringer during the Christmas season. SilverBells teaches that life isn't a win or lose game, but a sport best played as a team.
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