Brook Benton sings "This Time of Year"

       Benjamin Franklin Peay (September 19, 1931 – April 9, 1988), better known as Brook Benton, was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, with hits such as "It's Just a Matter of Time" and "Endlessly", many of which he co-wrote.

From 1959, Brook Benton sings "This Time of Year"

This Time of Year (lyrics) 

Written by Brook Benton and copyrighted

Little girls and little boys,
 Dream of worlds full of toys,
 This time of the year,
 When Christmas is near.

 Evergreens are snowy white,
 Sleigh bells ring through the night,
 This time of the year,
 When Christmas is near.

 And somewhere near a steeple,
 People kneel and pray,
 And choirs sing,
 Carols of Christmas day.

 Santa Claus is on his way,
 Loads of joy, on his sleigh,
 This time of the year,
 When Christmas is near.

 Hear the sleigh bells,
 Hear the sleigh bells,
 Hear the sleigh bells, ring.

Stamped Clay Ornaments

The finished oven-bake clay ornaments are painted simply. My daughter pressed a small twig
from a fir tree into the bauble shaped ornaments along with letter stamps.

       My eldest daughter made these merry little clay ornaments for family and friends this year! Each features the first initial of the recipient and will be tied with a bow on the packages she gives this coming Christmas holiday.

Supplies Needed:

• Sculpey oven bake clay, white
• cookie cutters
• letter stamps
• decorative plant stamps
• green and white acrylic paints
• clear coat acrylic sealer or Mod Podge
• twin for hangers
  
• a glass jar for rolling out the clay
• fir tree branch for pressing into clay (optional)

Step-by-Step Directions:

1. Select your favorite cookie cutter for this Christmas ornament craft. It is best to choose something simple that won't include fragile extensions that may break off with rough handling. Our versions are made with three cookie cutters: a house, a sunny star and a Christmas bauble shape.
   
2. Roll out the oven bake clay to approximately 1/4" and stamp with the cookie cutters.
3. Use a toothpick to make a hole wherever you would like to loop twine through in order to hang the handmade ornament.
4. Use rubber stamps to make words or images by pressing these into the unbaked clay.
5. Bake the clay in the oven at the temperature recommended on the package of the craft material you are using.
6. Let the ornaments cool before painting these as you choose.
7. My daughter used green to pool the paint in the areas pressed out with the rubber stamps.
8. Seal the painted surface with an acrylic spray or Mod Podge.

Left, the cookie cutters and rubber stamps my daughter used to make her ornaments. 
Right, here you can see that she lined up her unbaked ornaments in a glass cooking 
dish for baking. These are the safest dishes to use when working with clay because 
the residue from the plasticine washes off of glass easily.

Left, are the tiny letter stamps she used to press "God With Us" into the house ornaments.
Right, she included the word "Emmanuel" on a clay tag strung onto the house as well. 
See also the partridge in a pear tree pressed into the star ornament and painted green.

Christ the Light of the World.

        In the Oriental Church they have a service called the "Feast of Lights." It is held at night, because, when Christ came the world spiritually was in darkness. The whole church is filled with people who come there with unlighted tapers in their hands. Each taper signifies the human soul without Christ. Some of the clergy represent the Twelve Apostles, and as soon as each Apostle receives a taper, he lights it from a central taper on the altar and communicates the light to another and another and another. Soon the whole church is filled with a sea of glittering lights, all coming from the central one, and yet no man has lost anything by giving to his neighbor.

• Feast of Lights, 2016 Concert.
• Christmas Lights Celebration 2020

"Oh Come All Ye Faithful" Carol

Illustrated sheet music of "O Come All Ye Faithful," CC.

        "O Come, All Ye Faithful" (originally written in Latin as "Adeste Fideles") is a Christmas carol that has been attributed to various authors, including John Francis Wade (1711–1786), John Reading (1645–1692), King John IV of Portugal (1604–1656), and anonymous Cistercian monks. The earliest printed version is in a book published by Wade. A manuscript by Wade, dating to 1751, is held by Stonyhurst College in Lancashire.

       The text has been translated innumerable times into English. The most common version today is a combination of one of Frederick Oakeley's translations of the original four verses, and William Thomas Brooke's translation of the three additional verses. It was first published in Murray's Hymnal in 1852. Oakeley originally titled the song "Ye Faithful, approach ye" when it was sung at his Margaret Chapel in Marylebone (London), before it was altered to its current form. The song was sometimes referred to as the "Portuguese Hymn" after the Duke of Leeds, in 1795, heard a version of it sung at the Portuguese embassy in London. McKim and Randell nonetheless argue for Wade's authorship of the version people are now familiar with.), as does Bennett Zon in what may be the only article in a scholarly journal on the question (though Zon thinks it equally plausible that the author was someone else known to Wade).

• Lauren Daigle sings "O Come All Ye Faithful"
• O Come All Ye Faithful by Hillsong Worship
• TobyMac sings a newer version of "O Come, All Ye Faithful"
• The Most Wonderful Christmas Music for Your Family to Celebrate by Gretchen Louise

Carrie Underwood sings "O Come All Ye Faithful"

Glad Christmas Bells

Illustrated sheet music of "Glad Christmas Bells", CC.

Glad Christmas Bells from 1881

Glad Christmas bells, your music tells
The sweet and pleasant story;
How came to earth, in lowly birth,
The Lord of life and glory.

No palace hall its ceiling tall
His kingly head spread over,
There only stood a stable rude
The heavenly Babe to cover.

No raiment gay, as there He lay,
Adorned the infant Stranger;
Poor, humble Child of mother mild,
She laid Him in a manger.

But from afar, a splendid star
The wise men westward turning;
The livelong night saw pure and bright,
Above His birth place burning.

''Glad Christmas Bells'' on the piano.