Giving Inspiration, Fostering Tradition

Stainless Steel Droppings has introduced another reading challenge, the
2006 G.I.F.T. Challenge: Giving Inspiration, Fostering Tradition. To participate, one must agree to partake of and/or post on any 4 of the following:

• Christmas movies
• Christmas novels/short stories
• Christmas songs
• Christmas poems
• Christmas traditions
• Christmas memories

The giving comes in, via the sharing of information in a manner which inspires, and perhaps validates others during this Christmas season. The challenge comes in because two of the 4 choices must either involve something completely new or something that hasn’t been read or watched in an inordinately long amount of time.

Here’s my first, of the 4 challenges:

Knit the Classics chose Dickens' A Christmas Carol for the December selection. This story is so much a part of the Christmas Culture (good grief, Disney’s Ducks even starred in an animation version!), and everyone knows the story. But, could I find this book on my home’s library shelf? No . . . in fact, I am sure I never even read the original story. So a trip to Barnes and Noble, and a read of just a few pages allowed me to realize this story in its original form is beautiful, scary, poignant and moving---far, far better than the plays, movies and re-tellings could ever be. I am so happy to have read it, studied it, and contemplated the characteristics of Scrooge, which at times, we might all posess in some shade or another. It is truly a re-focusing of our happiness as humans! Go buy your copy now--you’ll be soooo happy you did!