I just discovered this Christmas picture book! I’m definitely adding it to my list over here soon. This is a wonderfully cute story, written by Alane Adams, illustrated by Lauren Gallegos. Watch/listen to the author read the story in the video below. I love that it shows a child letting go of the worry about what he will get for Christmas, as he decides to focus on giving. I’m going to read it to my grandsons this year. I hope you can find it at your public library and read it to someone you love this year too! Merry Christmas!
Go here and here if you want suggestions of other Christmas picture books.
Then over here I have a page of YouTube videos with moms suggesting Christmas picture books.
If you want to create a simple picture book advent, go here.
Last Saturday we went as a three-generation family to see the above movie. Grandpa, Grandma, my husband, three of my children, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren. Everyone loved it! It was the perfect way to spend the Saturday afternoon of Thanksgiving weekend. I left feeling soo cozy, uplifted, and full of gratitude for my family and especially for Jesus Christ. Just full of the true Christmas spirit! I just wish the rest of my family could have been there.
Here’s why I love it:
-it is based on a wonderful book, by the same name, by Barbara Robinson. I remember reading this when I was in junior high. This book is famous among homeschoolers, especially Christian homeschoolers. I remember Andrew Pudewa of IEW talking about it in a webinar. I’ve read it aloud to my children at least twice, to the “Olders” and the “Youngers.” (Not sure about the “Middle One.” Sadly, he sometimes got lost in the shuffle, but it all evened out I hope!) Then the youngest and I listened to the audiobook last year, around Christmas time. It took us about a month to get through it by listening to it every time I chauffeured him for his three times weekly commitments, back and forth. It made us laugh together. I have fond memories of those drives.
-it is about family, neighbors, and everyday life, which I tend to gravitate towards. (I have a hard time getting into fantasy.)
-it has beautiful “period” costumes. I absolutely loved the late 70ish, early 80s vibe of the green, orange, brown and blue sweaters and plaid pants, robe, and skirts. And the harvest gold sweater and living room curtains. The lead girl, Beth, wears barrettes (remember the Goody brand butterflies and ribbon shapes? I sure do) and those ponytail holders (what Gen Y and Gen Z call “hair ties”) with beads that I remember using when I was a child. (Fellow GenXer Pioneer Woman agrees with me that they are not to be called hair ties here.) I have heard the producer, Dallas Jenkins, say that they don’t want the movie to be tied to any decade, but I totally felt it was late 70s, early 80s. I guess Dallas is too young to have observed the fashion of the 70s and 80s.
-Judy Greer who plays the narrator’s mom is perfect as Grace, the mom who volunteers as the substitute director of the local church’s nativity pageant when the regular director breaks both her legs. She has this balance of fragility (maybe because of her shaky voice?), everyday beauty, and pluckiness that I enjoyed.
-the rest of the casting is perfect as well: Beth and her brother Charlie, Grace’s children; Grace’s husband, played by Pete Holmes; the snooty church ladies, the prissy and glossy Alice Wendelken who is usually the Perfect Mary, and her mom, Mrs. Wendelken. I always pictured Gladys as being red haired, and she is in this movie!
-it shows a depth of emotion and motivation in the lead characters that aren’t seen in the book
-it focuses on Christ as the center of Christmas instead of Santa. With that theme, it shows the power of Christ’s love on everybody who chooses to let Christ change them, including all the Herdmans
-it shows a girl feeling empowered by her own confidence to change her story and help her mom. In the process it shows her standing up for mom and herself to one of the town bullies, Imogene Herdman
-it shows the power of one woman choosing to be Christlike to some feral, rambunctious, naughty children, despite the pressure of the catty neighbor/church ladies
-it shows the power of community and kindness
-the snow is real! The producers filmed it in Canada so they could have real snow!
-it promotes belief in and reading of the Bible, and asking questions about the Bible stories
-it is wholesome, fit for the whole family, and anyone, to watch
-you don’t have to be a Christian to enjoy it
-it entertains, as it strikes the right balance between funny and sweet, with no cheesy-ness whatsoever
-it shows the power of letting go and not micromanaging when things aren’t going as expected
-it shows that people can change
-it gives us all a new, fresh wonder for the Nativity Story
Book Cover Image Credit: amazon.com
I also love that it is even better than the book. This is one rare exception where the movie is better. It’s also so much better than the made-for-TV special that came out in the early 80s with Loretta Swit, aka Hot Lips Houlihan from the MASH TV show. That version is OK and cute (see it down below), but it just doesn’t have the layers that this movie has, which I already mentioned. This movie also shows more of the dad’s role in the story. It answers questions that one might be left with after reading the book.
-“Why does Imogene keep staring at the painting of Mary and Jesus?”
-“How does Imogene keep her siblings coming back to the church after they all find out that they don’t get dessert every time they go to church?”
-“Why does Grace want to keep the Herdman kids in the play?”
-“How does Grace intervene to make the pageant the best one ever?” (It’s no accident that her name is Grace.)
I give it 4.75 out of 5 stars. I took off .25 star just because of the “half frame” story. From the beginning of the movie, you hear a female narrator’s voice telling the story, but at the beginning you don’t see the narrator’s face. You finally see her face at the end, as the grown-up Grace (Lauren Graham of Gilmore Girls), sitting in front of a group of children. That’s when you realize she’s been telling the history of the church’s Nativity pageant to these children for the whole movie. It’s just an abrupt change that is slightly disorienting. I wish the producers had started the movie showing Beth as an adult, telling the story to make it be a full frame story. It’s such a minor thing though. In spite of that, everything I wrote above means that this movie is the Best Family Christmas Movie ever! It is an instant classic, one that I will be sure to watch every year with my children and grandchildren. It even held the attention of the almost four-year-old (although I think the popcorn helped too!)
BONUS Materials:
Here’s a wonderful article about the author of the book, Barbara Robinson. She’s pictured below. Doesn’t she just look like such a fun grandma full of the best stories ever? Sadly, she passed away in 2013.
Photo Credit: goodreads.com
Watch the fun video showing some of the cast and crew.
Here are some delightful videos showing behind-the-scenes footage.
Below, we have opening night of the movie with some of the cast. Who would have thought that “Imogene” and “Gladys” could clean up so nicely?
An interesting article is here on the mom and daughter in real life who play one of the mom and daughter pairs in the movie: Mrs. Wendelken and Alice Wendelken.
Here is the obituary of the author, Barbara Robinson, with a bit of a backstory of the book, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I hope her two daughters and grandchildren are thrilled with the movie’s depiction of their mother and grandmother’s story. I’d love to be able to ask them questions about her. I didn’t know that the book has two sequels! I look forward to reading those.
Here’s a short interview with Judy Greer and Pete Holmes talking briefly about the show:
Dallas Jenkins, the producer (who does The Chosen too), speaks about the movie in the video below. Dallas recently spoke at BYU, you can watch that here.
Glenn Beck interviews Dallas Jenkins below about the movie.
Finally, here’s the 1983 version with Hot Lips. Like I said, it’s cute, just not as good.
Want more Christmas books and/or movies?
Go here for some Christmas movies and videos. Some picture books are here. You can get a free PDF of books here, and a huge list of both books and movies over here, under “December.” The movies are listed under the “family activities” section. Merry Christmas!
The picture book I’m sharing today can inspire a new Christmas family tradition. I hope it does! It is by Jill Hardie and illustrated by Christine Kornacki.
This book tells the story of a boy named Sam. He notices a sparkly box on the mantel in the days leading up to Christmas. His mom tells him that before they open it, they have to fill it up. On Christmas Day, his family opens up the box. Inside it are slips of paper, upon which are written acts of service his family did throughout the preceding weeks. His parents tell him that these acts of service are his family’s gift to Jesus. The book even comes with a Sparkle Box so you can start this same tradition right away!
What a great idea! I can see how fun it would be, after all the gifts are open on Christmas morning, to open the Sparkle Box and one by one review the acts of service your family performed during the past month, or even the past year. What a wonderful thing to do to end the gift-opening spree by focusing on following Christ with gifts of service family members have recently given to Him by serving others. This conversation could lead to even more sharing about how service received or rendered changed the course of one’s day or even life. Hopefully it will inspire family members to think about acts of service they will give in the coming year. As the Book of Mormon says, “…when you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God.” (Mosiah 2:17) You can share with your family and remind yourself that these acts of service don’t have to be anything big, it’s nice if they are, but they can just be simple things that you feel drawn to do that might take just a tiny bit more effort out of what you are already doing.
I started this family tradition a few years ago, but I tweaked it a bit by spreading out the conversation throughout the days preceding Christmas. Every night as we gathered for family prayer, I asked the family to share something that happened to them that day where they felt touched by someone serving them or sometime in the day where they felt the sweet love of God. Some people might have a hard time noticing that, so you might use different language, by saying something like, “When did you feel some sparkle in your life today? Who added sparkle to your life? How did you add sparkle to someone else’s life?” Then write those comments down, put them in the box, and review on Christmas Day. To emphasize the sweetness of God’s love touching people’s lives you could also give each person something sweet like a cookie or a piece of fruit as you talk, especially if the neighbors dropped by with a holiday treat that day.
(Hint: If you can’t find the book you could just tell the basic story as I’ve shared above and get a gold-colored box from a craft store like Hobby Lobby.)
For more Christmas family picture books and tradition ideas, see my other website here, and scroll down to the that says “December.”
You can also get a PDF list of picture books here. Happy Advent and Merry Christmas!
For short Christmas stories to share with your family, get my family devotionals ebook here and turn to the December section.
We read this book for Morning Basket time today. It is do delightful! I highly recommend this picture book for your Christmastime read-alouds. Use it for homeschooling, bedtime, or any other time! It is utterly charming!
Here’s why I love it:
-the illustrations are beautiful, realistic and not cartoony, done by Luisa Uribe
-the story is true so as you read it you are learning history, specifically the history of the tradition of the Christmas tree. The text by author Nancy Churnin keeps a great pace of not getting bogged down by details
-the story is about a girl who marched to the beat of her own drummer
-you can use the book for great discussions, about loneliness, marrying for love vs. other reasons, what to do when you feel different from society’s expectations for you, big family logistics (she had 15 children), and I’m sure you’ll think of many more! (The backmatter, for ages 12 and up, will give even more fodder for discussion. So be sure to read that too.)
-the story is about a woman who shows the power of following a personal call
-the story is full of Christmas cheer, as it shows Charlotte’s desire to make her place look more festive for Christmas.
-it’s just fun!
Here is a preview video below.
In short, I love this book. Your public library probably has it, so go put it on hold. You can go here to get more Christmas picture book suggestions. Finally, go here to get the simplest idea for doing a picture book advent. If you want some motivation for reading aloud Christmas picture books, go here. It’s my favorite Christmas tradition of all.
My firstborn and his wife, visiting from Texas for Thanksgiving, gave me this lovely Nativity decoration from their recent trip to Egypt.
Today is the first day of Advent!
I count it as a blessing from God that last month I happened to meet the producer of the Constant Wonder podcast, Tennery Taylor Norton. I believe God led me to find her so I could learn from her about this Advent in podcast form. Constant Wonder is a podcast that is produced year-round, with various topics to intrigue any listener who has a love of learning about science, nature, art, history, and really, an infinite number of topics. Constant Wonder is the new name of what used to be a show on BYU Radio, called Thinking Aloud. For Christmas time, Constant Wonder has special Advent episodes. Listen to the trailer below. I love things like this! For my Morning Basket time, I love to read aloud to my son from not just one, but two books, that explain what happened on that day in history.
To engage in this advent, just go here every day and listen to the corresponding date’s episode by clicking on that square. So, for example, on December 1, today, listen to the box that has the “1” on it. Of course, you can listen to them in any order or at any time, but the purist in me is sticking to one a day, on the corresponding date. You will enjoy these daily audio files that inspire belief in Christ, the wonder of His life and all Creation, and the celebration of His birth.
This providential encounter with Tennery was so satisfying, as over ten years ago I was blessed to meet the host of Constant Wonder/Thinking Aloud, Marcus Smith. It happened when I called about a used car to buy that I’d seen in an ad. He happened to be the one selling the car. I had been listening to Thinking Aloud for years, off and on, as much as I could fit it in, in the days before podcasts and smart phones, amidst the life of being a busy homeschooling mother. This was in the days when it was on at a certain time every day on the radio. I couldn’t access it on demand via the Internet like I can now. We are all so spoiled now with on-demand streaming! As we talked about the car I kept wondering where I had heard his voice before. It sounded so soothing and familiar! My husband and I had a great chat with him as we test drove his car, resulting in me confirming my hunch that he is the host of Thinking Aloud/Constant Wonder. I was also delighted to discover that Marcus knows my dad from his BYU student days.
Anyway, today’s episode, featuring writer Gayle Boss, is here. You can also listen to it in YouTube. Today’s episode is there. I love that Ms. Boss explains how she found an answer as to why she felt depressed at the beginning of December every year. She found an answer in the Christian history liturgical cycle, and the natural world. Learning of the natural world’s encroaching darkness and following its lead helped her find healing and happiness. She wrote the book All Creation Waits the Advent Mystery of New Beginnings. See the children’s edition above and the gift edition below. They look so lovely!
This discovery of this podcast from a providential encounter with the producer was definitely a God-wink. I know God lives, He loves us, and He is in the details of our lives. He often arranges things as best as He can, working within the limits of what He can to respect our agency, to bring us the friends and resources He knows will bless us. He whispers to us with the Holy Ghost and with symbols, to allow us to learn what He wants us to learn. I have more stories, here, here, and here about more God winks.
P.S. If you want the page of the episodes all in YouTube, go here. Happy Advent! I have more Advent ideas over here.
To honor Thanksgiving in two days, my picture book of the week is the one above. I just love it!
This book is so wonderful because it tells the Thanksgiving story in a way you probably haven’t heard already, that from the perspective of John Howland. John was on the Mayflower as an indentured servant to William Carver. Some little things happened on the voyage, that in total, count as good fortune, or a miracle in my book, to get him to America.
First is the fact that the Pilgrims had an extra screw so they could fix the broken beam on their ship on the voyage. Next was the fact that when John was tossed overboard by a huge wave, and almost drowned, some other people happened to be on the deck who saw it happen. So, they threw a rope overboard so he could grab it. See the book cover image above with him submerged. As John was underwater, drowning, he felt like giving in to the overwhelming desire to close his eyes and fall asleep. That meant death. See video below.
Fortunately, John heard a voice, sounding like his mother’s, to stay awake and not give in to sleep. Just as he opened his eyes, lightning struck over the water above his head. That flash of lightning allowed him to see the rope that his friends had thrown overboard. He was able to see it well enough to grab it and be pulled overboard. How positively providential! as Rachel Lynde of Anne of Green Gables would say.
President M. Russell Ballard gave a talk about this very incident that I love. You can go here to watch it. The John Howland incident is mentioned at about the 7:25 mark.
This book has lovely illustrations, a great storyline, and best of all it’s true! It’s also a great springboard for a discussion of “How have you seen the hand of God in your life?” or “What events have happened in your life that involve synchronicity?” Synchronicity is when things occur close together, that are meaningfully related, but have no apparent causal connection. Watch this interesting video below where RFK Jr. tells his story of synchronicity. I always attribute the relation of the events to God.
I’m going to read this for our Morning Basket time in our homeschooling tomorrow. Then I’ll use that question I just mentioned to spark discussion. Here’s one of my answers to the question I just mentioned, which I’ll share tomorrow. OK, so when this month of November started, I told myself that on my thrifting trips this month I wanted to find a long comfy white nubby cardigan sweater (I have a short one, but I wanted one lone enough to cover my bum), a long comfy beige sweater, and some black boots to replace the ones I gave away last year. Guess what? I found all three desired things at thrift stores this month!
Here’s a video that shows some of the book’s illustrations and storyline.
This video below with the same guy as above, at the 15:07 mark, shares more about John Howland and the family/group he came with.
Finally, here’s P.J. Lynch telling the backstory of creating this book. Did you know that he’s illustrated over 30 books (like The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, one of my absolute favorites of my Christmas picture books list here), but The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower is the first book he’s authored AND illustrated? It’s because he was so fascinated with the life of John Howland. John married fellow Pilgrim Elizabeth Tilley, and they went on to have 10 children. Today, about 10 millions of their descendants are alive, including me! I’m so grateful for this man and God preserving his life. Hear the story below.
I’ve shared some favorite Thanksgiving-themed picture books here, and movies over here. Now let’s talk about songs and poetry! If you want to cultivate a family where song, the spoken word and IRL conversation triumph over screens for entertainment, perhaps you could use these. I love that Nancy Campbell of aboverubies.org has speeches at her big holiday family dinners. Maybe that’s something I’ll institute as my grandchildren get older and I have more. I’ve read about that in some of her Above Rubies magazines These magazines are such a wealth of encouragement for homemaker mothers. (You can see the archives here.) It’s never too late to start a family tradition to help bind your family together in love. To celebrate my last birthday, I asked my family members to gather around the piano while I played and we sang some songs. It felt so good to be creating our own entertainment instead of just consuming it! I hope to make this happen more often. In my husband’s family of origin, they had a tradition of doing a family talent show on Christmas Eve. I have loved that! We’ve had poetry recitations, martial arts demonstrations, instrumental music rendering, picture book reading aloud, and much more. I’m wondering, if it’s great for Christmas Eve, how about we do it for every holiday gathering?
My husband carving our turkey with his brother’s help, Thanksgiving of 2011.
Do you want to hear about a Thanksgiving Miracle? Here you go! It’s from the February 2003 New Era, a magazine for youth published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s from a talk called, “Do You Need a Miracle?” by Elder Larry Gibbons. It tells the story of a man, Mr. Bogar, living in the hills of Missouri. He went hunting for a legendary turkey named Foots who was so big that he left prominent tracks in the snow. The man stalked Foots down until he was 60 yards away. Carefully, Mr. Bogar aimed, shot, and hit the turkey! The turkey fell down and appeared to be dead. Mr. Bogar was sure that his turkey dinner was in the bag. But then an amazing thing happened, and it wasn’t until months later that the hunter found out the rest of the miraculous story. The end result was a miraculous turkey dinner for some hungry people who had been praying for food, not the hunter’s family. Click on this link to read the whole thing. It’s amazing!
I believe in miracles! I’ve seen them happen in my life. I’ve seen hearts soften (including my own) and miracles happen when at first it seemed like no change was remotely possible. I know these changes happened because of the power of faith in Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving is a great time for miracles! Any time is a great time for miracles when we do as Elder Gibbons says in the article:
You have some difficult battles to fight. It is easy to let fear overtake us. Have courage! Have faith! Remember the sons of Helaman. “Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; … yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them” (Alma 56:47).
Have faith! Repent of those things that you need to change in your life. Do not fear. Work hard. Expect a miracle!
Remember the greatest miracle of all time. The Son of Man rose from the grave. He overcame death and hell! He lives. I know that He lives. Because of this, the greatest of miracles, we have no reason to fear, and we have every reason to have faith.
I also believe in President Russell M. Nelson’s prophetic promise, here, that we have yet to see the greatest manifestations of Jesus Christ’s power. Imagine! Greater than the parting of the Red Sea, greater than the healings of Jesus, even greater than His coming back from the dead! We have sooooo much to look forward to!
I was blessed in October to meet a man who has a whole YouTube Channel full of miracle stories. Here’s one below. Go to his channel to watch so many more! I’ve included some below. Whatever burden you are carrying, I hope that these stories remind you that all of our hope, all of our salvation, and all miracles come from Jesus Christ our Savior. I hope this season of thanksgiving will help you to find gratitude for everything, even your trials. My recent reading of the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ, from Ether, with the story of the Jaredites traveling in barges reminds me of the power of trials. Maybe the Jaredites thought the “furious winds” that blew on them while they were crossing the ocean were trials, but those winds are what carried the barges to their Promised Land. What are the furious winds in your life?
P.S. If you want more Thanksgiving stories, get my Celestial Family Devotionals Ebook here and turn to the November section.
I don’t know about you, but some heavy things have been weighing me down lately, even though this is also a season of rejoicing and gratitude. I’ll be sharing about those things soon after I process how to express it all. I thought I’d lighten things up in my mind with a little Thanksgiving levity. I hope you enjoy these videos! They make me laugh! Especially the first one about Thanksgiving carols with Lamar Cranberry. I just laugh every time I watch this one, especially the part about “testing out the strength of my waistband.” So funny!
If you want more Thanksgiving ideas, go here. Happy Thanksgiving!
I want to get into the habit of reviewing a book a week that’s just for moms. I’ve done that off and on, OK mostly “off,” over the past few years. I really want to be more consistent because I love writing all about my favorite books that enrich and help moms. So today I’m talking about this book before Thanksgiving has come and gone. It’s a cookbook by Susan Branch, called Autumn: from the Heart of the Home . I reviewed the same author’s Summer: from the Heart of the Home cookbook over here. I found Autumn at the Springville Deseret Industries thrift store for only $3! I feel so incredibly blessed to have found this gem! It is a treasure!
I’ll repeat what I put over on the review of her Summer cookbook here to give you a little introduction to Susan. Just who is she and why I am sharing her book? Susan is an author and illustrator who lived in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. I noticed on her blog that she recently moved back to California, where she grew up as the oldest in a big family of 8 children in the 1960s. Her mother taught her to bake, cook, sew, tend children, clean, wash, craft, and host parties, as well as all the other homemaking arts. Susan loved learning all of it. She dedicated her first book to her dear mother, who she says was the strong foundation of her life. (You can read about her mother here.)
I’m sharing her book because even though it’s not carnivore, low-carb/keto, or even whole foods-y, it’s just beautiful and fun! She has illustrated all the pictures and written all the words in it by hand. It’s just so gorgeous! See below.
This book has the following recipes that are warm, cozy, and fall-ish:
-appetizers and finger food, like Garlic Shrimp, Spiced Pecans, and Red Chili Onion Rings
-side dishes like Acorn Squash, Roasted Fall Vegetables, and Potatoes Anna
-traditional Thanksgiving dinner foods of stuffing (her grandma’s recipe), gravy, and cranberry sauce
-main dishes like Touchdown Chili, Turkey in the Straw and Classic Tenderloin of Beef
-desserts, including Gingerbread Cake , Cinnamon Ice Cream, Indian Pudding, Pumpkin Cheesecake, and Molasses Cookies
-drinks like Hot Chocolate and Autumn Spiced Cider
-Halloween food
Reading this book just makes me happy! I don’t have any plans to make any of the recipes soon but if any of my children want to make any, they are welcome to it. I hope it inspires them. So I guess this isn’t really a review, it’s actually a preview. I don’t know if anyone else out there loves to read cookbooks for fun. If you haven’t you probably haven’t found a fun one like Susan Branch’s. She has others, so I’ve been collecting them from my thrifting jaunts. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have one called Winter or Spring. She says that the Summer book covers spring recipes and her Christmas cookbooks cover winter ones. Her little comments on each recipe simply entertain me. (Just like the comments that Serene and Pearl make on their recipes in the Trim Healthy Mama cookbooks.)
Interspersed between the recipes are lusciously decorated poetry pages, memories of Thanksgiving as a child with her big family and relatives, fun lists, and pages of tips for gardening, harvesting, food preservation, and having fun in autumn: fall decorating, entertaining with dinner parties, making your guest room more cozy, what to collect when you go antiquing and leaf peeping, homemade gift ideas, and quotes about harvest time and fall. This is just an autumnal homemaker’s heaven in between two covers of a book! It even has a ribbon bookmark. The dishes look like a feast, and the illustrations and words are a feast for the mind.
Reading this book is one way I delight and dazzle my life as Ramona Zabriskie of Wife for Life talks about. So…excuse me while I go fill up a tub for a hot bubble bath soak in the tub and drink in this book!
Tree of Life Mothering 