Christmas ( p.75-79 ): Why I Like Christmas

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WHY I LIKE CHRISTMAS

Christmas is the holiday of my soul.  It is cold outside, and the sky is gloomy, but the flowers burst into bloom deep in my heart. Christmas is the victory of good over evil. All sins disappear on this day like rats, hiding in the deepest holes. They can’t bare that light, that love which is given to us on the day of Christmas.

People go home loaded down with toys and Christmas presents, which will be hidden under the Christmas tree or in the knitted stockings.

The tables are set. Christmas goose, potatoes, salads, cakes... There is a delicious smell in every house! People sit down at the tables, and grace is said. Candles flare up on the Christmas tree, and people wish happiness to each other.

Christmas is the time to forget all the offenses you had to bear, and to forgive everyone who hurt you and was unfair to you, who was not kind to you. To forgive and to forget... It is not very easy. But you should try. Just do it. That’s what Christ did. He died on the cross to save us. He forgave our sins. Why shouldn’t we try to forgive? But if you say, “I can forgive, but I cannot forget,” it is only another way of saying, “I will not forgive.” To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you. Every person should have a special cemetery lot in which to bury the faults of friends and loved ones. This is the main meaning of the spirit of Christmas. I wish you to get to know it, and live with this spirit not only at Christmas time, but all during the year. God bless us, everyone!

Ex.1. Answer the questions.

• Christmas is the victory of good over evil, isn’t it?
• Why do all sins disappear on this day?
• Is it a tradition in your family to put presents under the Christmas tree?
• Do you have a big Christmas feast? If you do, what do you eat?
• Is it difficult or easy for you to forget all the offences you had to bear?
• Can you easily forgive those people who hurt you?
• Do you agree that if you forget your offenders, you yourself become happier?
• What do you think the main meaning of the spirit of Christmas is?

Enjoy the poem by Helen Rice

Let Us Live Christmas Every Day

Christmas is more than a day at the end of the year,

more than a season

of joy and good cheer.

Christmas is really

God’s pattern for living

to be followed all year

by unselfish giving...

For the holiday season

awakens good cheer

and draws us closer

to those we hold dear.

And we open our hearts

and find it is good

to live among men

as we always should...

But as soon as the tinsel

is stripped from the tree,

the spirit of Christmas

fades silently

into the background

of daily routine,

and is lost in the whirl

of life’s busy scene.

And all unawares

we miss and forego

the greatest blessing

that mankind can know...

For if we lived Christmas

each day as we should,

and made it our aim

to always do good,

we’d find the lost key

to meaningful living

that comes not from getting,

but from unselfish giving.

And we’d know the great joy

of Peace upon Earth,

which was the real purpose

of our Savor’s birth.

For in the glad tidings

of the first Christmas Night

God showed us the Way

and the Truth  and the Light!

Источник: http://englishaz.narod.ru