Focus on Christmas with Bruce Judisch

Please welcome back Bruce Judisch to my blog. Bruce is sharing some of his Christmas memories. I hope you will leave comments for Bruce. Would love to hear about others special Chrsitmas memories in the comments.

Thanks again for being on my blog today.

1. Firstly thanks for coming back to my blog as we are focus on christmas.
What do you most associate with Christmas where you live?

Geographically, warm weather. I’ve BBQ’d in shorts and a T-shirt here in San Antonio on Christmas in years past. I miss the seasons and, yes, sometimes the snow and ice, in Ohio where I grew up. But it’s nice to be able to visit the snow when I want to, and then leave it behind.

(Jenny here) We also have a warm Christmas quite often and BBQ is what alot of people will do for Christmas lunch.

2. Do you have any special family traditions you do at Christmas time?

When my children lived at home, we went to our church’s Christmas Eve service and then came home, lit a fire (turned down the air conditioning, if necessary—we were determined to have a fire!), had cheese, meat and fruit snacks and sang carols. Sometimes the kids would open one gift on Christmas Eve, and then go to bed.

3. Do you have a favourite christmas Carol and if so do you know why? 

I love almost all of them. “O Holy Night” became the most poignant carol for me when I lived in Berlin, Germany, in 1989. The Berlin Wall had fallen in November, and when we began singing Yuletide carols at the chapel, the third verse of “O Holy Night,” leaped off the hymnal page: “And in His name all oppression shall cease.”

(Jenny again)  Wow that would be so awesome, I too love O Holy Night.

4. If you could spend Christmas anyway you could how would you celebrate?

In Heaven at Christ’s return. I don’t know if we’ll celebrate His incarnation in the Hereafter, but it’s momentous for a Christian that God would send His son to live and die for us. I want to thank Him in whatever way I’m able for that Christmas. Maybe once; maybe a bunch of times. I hope a bunch of times.

5. Do you have any special memories of Christmas?

Oh, my goodness—a bazillion! I’ve already mentioned the Berlin Christmas. When I was growing up in Ohio, we would attend our church’s candlelight service. I remember trying to make it home with the candle from the service still burning so we could light the candles in our house from it. The weather often made that quite a challenge, but more often than not we were successful by tucking the small flame beneath a coat while making a mad dash for the car in the wind and snow. Fun!

6. What is a typical Christmas eve and or Christmas day for you.

That is changing, now that our children have families of their own. My son, his wife, and their five children still try to make it down from Oklahoma for the Christmas Season. My older daughter and her husband with their five children live closer, so that’s easier. My younger daughter, husband, and three children live in Alabama, so that’s more difficult for them to make it home. We anticipate doing more of the traveling ourselves when the grandkids become older and our kids want to establish their own traditions at home—which is only right. We hope to be part of those traditions.

7. Do you have any Christmas movies or Christmas books you like to see or read each year?

“White Christmas” and “Miracle on 34^th Street” are a must. We watch the plethora of cartoons—The Grinch, Charlie Brown, The Polar Express, etc.—when the grandkids visit.

(Jenny again) I will be watching The Polar Express tomorrow night. I do like Miracle on 34th street. I wish we got more of the older movies on tv here.

8. Do you have a Christmas message for my readers?

As tiresome as the message has become for some, it’s still essential that we focus on the fact that it’s Christ’s birthday and that He should get the attention. The first thing to ruin Christmas is the stress of overbuying gifts for everybody but Him—and we all do it. We r-e-a-l-l-y aren’t going to enjoy Christmas until He take center stage.

(Jenny again) I do agree the stress does ruin Christmas, so many forget Christmas is more than gifts and food. 

You can find Bruce at www.brucejudisch.com or www.brucejudisch.blogspot.com

Also for a good gift check out Katia.

A spirited American exchange student. A sixty-year-old invalid. An enigmatic Berlin gentleman. A riveting Cold War secret. "Seek the truth, embrace the pain, cherish the freedom." Spunky Maddy McAllister, a twenty-one-year-old exchange student in Berlin, Germany, has a journalism career to launch. Stalwart Katia Mahler, a sixty-year-old invalid from the former East Berlin, has a story to tell. Enigmatic Oskar Schultmann brings together the journalist and the storyteller. Maddy's task: to document Katia's story. Cultures and generations clash as the young American and the German matron strive to understand each other's present and past. Maddy learns more than a personal history; Katia receives more than a memoir. And always in the background is Oskar, who is drawn into the story in ways he never intended. Peek over the Berlin Wall as Katia's story comes to life through the scribbled notes of a girl struggling to grasp the significance of what she has written for her own life as well as for future generations. By the author of the beloved A Prophet's Tale Series: The Journey Begun, Book One, and The Word Fulfilled, Two Book.