"Let children be glad in the coming of Santa with his bundle of gifts. And tell them the story of good Saint Nicholas who, in honor of the Christ, provided a dowry for three poor maidens by tossing purses of gold through their open window at night. But above all, remember that the children are waiting to hear of the coming of the Christ into their house as the unseen guest. Let them place a chair for him. And while cookies are for the rosy-cheeked man with the pack on his back, let the offering of the Communion which the Lord offered to the disciples also be made ready. A piece of bread, a cup of wine—these, too, are part of your sacred shrine.

"Mothers and fathers of the new age, your children are taught by you to walk and talk with Jesus, with Moses, with Elijah and Mohammed, Confucius and the Buddha, to pray to Mary and Pope John and Saint Thérèse. If you expect them to walk and talk with the Savior, the prophets, and the saints, then allow them the joy of the ritual so native to their hearts. Let them receive their Lord in full glory!

"Let them prepare the tree—each painted ball the star of a Causal Body of a favorite ascended master or one revered among the hosts of the Lord. Let them print or write the names of their precious friends and tie them to the top of the ball and then place the ball reverently, in full awareness that 'lo, I AM here and lo, I AM there!' For wherever the name of an archangel, an Elohim, an ascended being is written or spoken, there is the focus of that Electronic Presence.

"Children deal with concrete realities. And their fairy friends and playmates, gnomes and elementals, come out in full array for the hustling and bustling of Christmas, the fun and the play. So many of these little ones converse with beings of other dimensions, but they fear to tell their parents. They fear the mockery of the carnal mind beset with superstitions of psychology and respectability. But with a word of encouragement, a smile, and a twinkle of the eye, children at Christmas time reenter the heaven world whence they came so recently trailing clouds of glory from the octaves of light."

"Where we place our attention is very important. When we place it upon the media, upon television and motion pictures, they bring to us certain momentums of the actors, writers and developers of the programs. However, if we are wise, we do not leave ourselves entirely open. We place a screen before us, as we should be guarded when we expose ourselves to the media.

"However, our children are not guarded; they are wide open. Therefore, they take in the arcing of energies from the world and they become part of the mass consciousness. We have unwittingly allowed the television set, or the producers behind the television set, to be the gurus of our children."

". . . example of psychism is the violence in the Saturday-morningcartoons. This violence is a horrendous desecration of the soul of the child. The makers of these cartoons have sown the wind and they shall—I say, they shall—reap the whirlwind of their karma for the abuse of the minds and emotional bodies of children."

It's a Wonderful Life

How do we measure the worth of one life? How do we gauge its meaning? We might begin by recalling the 1946 Christmastime classic "It's A Wonderful Life," which examined the impact of a single man's existence through its effect on others. The film, set during World War II, tracks the life of George Bailey of Bedford Falls, New York, from youthful hope, to utter despair, to renewed and mature hopefulness. Both director Frank Capra and leading man James Stewart regarded this movie as their favorite. The screenplay, co-authored by Capra, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, was based on an original short story, "The Greatest Gift," which Philip Van Doren Stern included with Christmas cards in 1943 and published privately in 1945. The provenance shows.

The story follows the interaction between a near-suicidal Bailey and Clarence Oddbody,
Angel Second Class, who has yet to perform sufficiently to earn his angel wings. Informed by a Christian worldview, albeit an attenuated one, the script provides a comely perspective on the accumulated moral weight of Bailey's life. Clarence guides George through an investigation as to how others' lives would have shriveled had George never lived—with Clarence finally earning his wings by convincing George that his life did indeed have meaning.

Confronting his wealthy, avaricious arch-nemesis during an emotional scene, George delivers an impassioned defense of his (and his family's) principles regarding the worth of individual lives: "Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well, in my book, he died a much richer man than you'll ever be."

Certainly, this speech conveys a conviction contrary to the materialistic worldview. Yet while the movie concludes that each person's life is gauged by its impact on others, that answer is not
entirely convincing. Is even this the full measure of an individual's worth? Is this not simply begging the question, by taking as a given that the lives of others have value, and that one lone person only merits through amassed effects on others?

The Sound of Music

The Happiest Sound In All The World!

A Christmas Carol

Greater than "David Copperfield!"

A Christmas Carol
animated

An old bitter miser is given a chance for redemption when he is haunted by ghosts on Christmas Eve.

White Christmas

Sure it's corny, but White Christmas does indeed succeed at what it seemingly sets out to do: Instill nostalgia for care-free times and engage even a little bit of the `Christmas Spirit' in most viewers. (How can Bing Crosby singing `White Christmas' not make you at least a tiny bit sentimental?)

If You Believe

A Christmas classic your family will treasure and a sound study of a relationship with your inner child.