Do Writers Experience Christmas Differently?

Do you think writers experience Christmas differently? If you think that may be true, why would that be? As a psychologist and novelist/author, I both agree and disagree. Does that sound a little non-committal? Let me explain. 

For many of us, large celebrations, like the Christmas Holidays, began in our experience when we were very young – before we had language. We just breathed in the essence of Love, Expectation and Joy. As the years went along, we continued to attach those great feelings with Christmas, and added the aroma of pine and Christmas cookies, the sounds of carolers in song, the silky touch of satin ribbons wound around boxes covered in festive paper, and the taste of cocoa overflowing with whipped cream and marshmallows. While our experiences are similar, writers ascribe words to our feelings and share them with readers. 

In all your busy Christmas shopping, parties, and family, I have another fun activity for you. Go to a thesaurus, either online or in book form, and find three words that best expresses your “feelings” of Christmas. Next year, add three more words to your list of Christmas experiences, expressed in words. 

As you find a little time for reading during the holidays, watch for the words that other authors use that express your deep, non-verbal feelings. What fun! - finding a voice for your experiences!  

The collection of short Christmas stories, titled, Christmases Past, gives you the opportunity to “hear” and experience Christmas through the different, but similar, words of eight separate authors. You will find many more books as well as your browse through the bookstore, library and online. Hey, I know you’re busy, but if you don’t take time for the “words” of Christmas, you will miss out on the fullest expression of the Celebration of Joy, when Love, Song and acceptance came into the world. 

Finding our Christmas voice is why Christmas carols are so precious – someone has found the “words” to help you express your “feelings” of Christmas. Two of the most important words are, “Merry Christmas,” and those are the words I have saved for you, Dear Reader. Merry Christmas! 

Doris

Doris Gaines Rapp

Copyright 2014 by Doris Gaines Rapp 

Collection:

Christmas Feather, one of eight short stories in a wonderful collection titled, Christmases Past 

Non-Fiction:

Waiting for Jesus in a Can’t Wait World – Advent 2014

Prayer Therapy of Jesus

Promote Yourself 

Novelette:

News at Eleven (Glo Magazine Jan, Feb, March, and April 2015)
Novels:

Length of Days – The Age of Silence

Escape from the Belfry

Smoke from Distant Fires

Hiawassee – Child of the Meadow

Length of Days – Beyond the Valley of the Keepers (January 2015)

News at Eleven – A Novel (April 2015)
Children’s:

Lincoln’s Christmas Mouse

What Do Christmases Past, Alzheimer’s Disease Month, and Native American Month have in Common?

"She washes her good blouses with face soap . . . in the sink!” a woman complained to me. “You know, she has Alzheimer’s.” 

My friend’s mother lived through many decades with life shaping-events: one was the Great Depression and the other, World War II. Those years wired into her permanent thinking a lifetime of perceptions and behavior: with no money, no job and then rationing of many necessities. If she was lucky enough to have soap, regardless of the type - facial, laundry or dish washing – she could wash her clothes in the sink or bathtub and hang them to dry. She was indeed a fortunate person. That is why, today, Mom washes her good clothes in ways that are no longer necessary. She remembers the past and meets the needs of the day with old wiring. 

In, Christmas Feathers, my short story in a collection titled, Christmases Past, Rachel Rush’s fear and behavior were shaped by the Indian Wars. How would the new frontier community of Greenville, find peace and freedom from fear between the settlers and the Native Americans who chose to remain? A new life-shaping event changed her perceptions . . . permanently.  

Sunday is the first day of Advent, the days leading up to Christmas.  Will you use the life-changing event of the birth of Jesus Christ, to wire a new path in your thoughts and emotions that will heal your heart and the lives around you, like they did in Christmases Past, and those who survived other major historic events? Those with Alzheimer ’s disease do not have the years left in their Length of Days to apply their new experiences and learning. You and I do.  

All of these elements have Christ in common: His forgiveness and grace in the lives of frontier families; His acceptance and love as we help our elder loved ones remember Christmases Past. 

Doris

Copyright 2014 Doris Gaines Rapp 

Collection:

Christmas Feather, one of eight short stories in a wonderful collection titled, Christmases Past 

Non-Fiction:

Waiting for Jesus in a Can’t Wait World – Advent 2014

Prayer Therapy of Jesus

Promote Yourself 

Novelette:

News at Eleven (Glo Magazine Jan, Feb, March, and April 2015)
Novels:

Length of Days – The Age of Silence

Escape from the Belfry

Smoke from Distant Fires

Hiawassee – Child of the Meadow

Length of Days – Beyond the Valley (January 2015)

News at Eleven – A Novel (April 2015)
Children’s:

Lincoln’s Christmas Mouse

 

Lincoln's Christmas Mouse (Sneak Preview)

I re-sized Lincoln's Christmas Mouse to fit into a Christmas Box Ministry package. They are great as Christmas presents as well and easy to stick in a box you are sending to a loved one. It includes a mouse that talks, President Abraham Lincoln's decision whether to put up a Christmas tree, and elements of the Civil War. It is available to order from your bookstore or online at www.amazon.com and will be posted on www.cokesbury.com by Wednesday. ISBN: 978-0-9915033-3-9.  Take a peek - not from the book - from the manuscript!

 

Hello! My name is Hiram P. Antwhistle. The “P” stands for Philadelphia, where I was born. I have lived in the White House for a very long time, even before Mr. Lincoln became president and long after.

Yes, I live in the White House. You see, I am the White House mouse and my wife, Martha, and I live in our little room in the wall near the main stairway leading to Mr. Lincoln’s rooms above.

            As the appointed White House mouse, I have many responsibilities. Little Willie and Tad Lincoln’s yellow mongrel dog, Fido, stayed behind in Springfield, Illinois when their father was elected president. Still, the cook’s cat needs considerable exercise, considering all that she eats. And, who would be better suited to provide those calisthenics than I, Hiram P. Antwhistle?

            The assignment that has thrilled me the most over my many years in the White House is the one I fill at Christmas each year. I became the official Christmas mouse.

            In 1860, when Mr. Lincoln was elected president of these United States, there was no electricity. And, with no electricity, there were no Christmas programs on television because there was no TV and there were no electronic toys or computer games because they had not yet been invented either. The center of the home at Christmas time in the 1800's was the family’s Christmas tree.

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Copyright 2014 Doris Gaines Rapp

Native American Month - SHUNNED

If you were shunned, how would you handle it? I know I would be so hurt, I may not be able to think clearly, so confused over another’s reactions, or lack of reaction, that my health and emotions may be weaken.  

Hiawassee (Hiawassee – Child of the Meadow) did not use another’s fear to inflict harm on herself. As a Cherokee woman, living in the new state of Indiana in the early 1800’s, she chose to use Christian love and forgiveness, and the Cherokee belief in Balance to make her life a joy to her husband and children. 

How do we balance our lives in the face of rejection, shunning? We need to recognize that the fear is in the heart of the one shunning us. It isn’t about us. It’s about them and what their pseudo-superiority makes up for in their lives. They are under the delusional belief, if they put us down or ignore our existence, that gives them power over the relationship. It doesn’t.  It gives us the power because we can see their fear of us and the weakness in their life and feel pity for them. We can “quietly go about being in the-right” and find joy in the relationship with them because we know their secret – they fear something. Eventually, if we are loving and strong, they will lay their mistaken perceptions of us aside, recognize our loving way and call us “friend.” 

During Native American month, seek Christian love and Cherokee balance in your life. Like Hiawassee, you will find joy in the joyous, peace in the peaceful, and truth in the relationships around you. 

Doris

Doris Gaines Rapp
Copyright 2014 Doris Gaines Rapp

 

Available from www.cokesbury.com and www.amazon.com
Hiawassee – Child of the Meadow
Smoke from Distant Fires