Our Twelve Days Before Christmas

by White, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9781550226140
• ISBN10: 1550226142
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-09-01
• Publisher: ECW Press

Summary

This hilarious and moving account of one family's frantic countdown to Christmas Eve follows the trials of a Christian minister as he tries to put up a giant Christmas tree, rearranges his schedule to attend his children's concerts, struggles against mobs at the mall, and participates in the church choir's first attempt at Handel'sMessiah. Familiar stories of family events during the holidays accompany quirky, entertaining accounts of the particular challenges a minister encounters, such as his desperate nationwide search for goats for the church's Christmas pageant. The joy and frustration of the Christmas season are captured in this story of a family's struggle to find the genuine meaning of the holiday.

Author Biography

Christopher White is the minister of Westminster United Church. He is the coauthor of Emmaus Road: Churches Making Their Way Forward and Jacob's Blessing: Dreams, Hopes, and Visions for the Church. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	ix
BEFORE THE COUNTDOWN	x
On the Twelfth Day before Christmas, my true love gave to me an eight-foot, enormous pine tree.	1	(16)
On the Eleventh Day before Christmas, my daughters gave to me eleven paper angels to decorate the enormous pine tree.	17	(20)
On the Tenth Day before Christmas, my true love gave to me ten shopping lists for kith and kin with enormous pine trees	37	(14)
On the Ninth Day before Christmas, my daughters gave to me nine concerts to remember, so I collapsed under the enormous pine tree.	51	(18)
On the Eighth Day before Christmas, my true loves gave to me eight Christmas cookies in the shape of an enormous pine tree.	69	(20)
On the Seventh Day before Christmas, I gathered by my side seven favourite stories to read under the enormous pine tree.	89	(16)
On the Sixth Day before Christmas, my true loves hid from me six Christmas items that I kind of, sort of, hope they might put under the enormous pine tree.	105	(18)
On the Fifth Day before Christmas, the call went out from me for five Thespian goats (and please keep them away from the enormous pine tree).	123	(20)
On the Fourth Day before Christmas, we practised at the church with four- and five-year-old shepherds, who fought under the enormous pine tree.	143	(18)
On the Third Day before Christmas, Mother Nature gave to me three feet of snow that blanketed the enormous pine tree.	161	(20)
On the Second Day before Christmas, the choir sounded to me like two calling birds nesting in the enormous pine tree.	181	(16)
On the Last Day before Christmas, I paused and gave great thanks for the manger under the enormous pine tree.	197