Is anyone here planning on blessing their Christmas tree? Here is a Traditional blessing for Christmas Eve that I find rather beautiful and meaningful:

Ingredients: tree, family, Holy Water, Christmas music

The Father of the Family: "The Christmas tree represents the Tree of Life in the Garden of Paradise. But that tree was but a figure of the true Tree of Life which it foreshadowed--the Tree of the Cross upon which Our Lord Jesus Christ Redeemed us by His Death, and obtained for us the life of supernatural grace. Thus, our Christmas tree is also a symbol of Christ Himself, Who hung upon the Cross for love of us. The ornaments and decorations which we place upon the tree represent our acts of love, prayer, and sacrifice, by which our souls are adorned with the beauties of Divine Grace, merited for us by Our Divine Lord upon the Cross. The bright lights shining upon the tree represent Christ as the Light and Life of the whole world. Finally, the gleaming star on top of the tree is a reminder of the Star of Bethlehem, guiding the Three Holy Kings to the stable cave. This radiant star is also a symbol of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who as the Mother given to us from the Cross--the Tree of Life--by our Savior Himself, guides weary mankind to the foot of the manger, wherein lies her Divine Son, the Light of the World, and the Lord and Savior of all mankind."

The undecorated tree is placed upon a stand, and sprinkled with Holy Water. While the tree is being decorated, Christmas carols are sung or played. After the Christmas Tree has been decorated, the following prayers are said.

Father: Our help is in the Name of the Lord.
All: Who hath made Heaven and Earth.

All: Then shall all the trees of the woods rejoice before the Face of the Lord, because He cometh: because He cometh to judge the earth.

Psalm 95

V. Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: sing to the Lord, all the earth.
R. Sing ye to the Lord and bless His Name; show forth His salvation from day to day.

V. Declare His glory among the Gentiles: His wonders among all people.
R. For the Lord is great, and exceedingly to be praised: He is to be feared above all gods.

V. For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils; but the Lord made the heavens.
R. Praise and beauty are before Him: holiness and majesty in His sanctuary.

V. Bring ye to the Lord, O ye kindred of the Gentiles, bring ye to the Lord glory and honor: bring to the Lord glory unto His Name.
R. Bring up sacrifices, and come into His courts: adore ye the Lord in His holy court.

V. Let all the earth be moved at His Presence. Say ye among the Gentiles, the Lord hath reigned.
R. For He hath corrected the world, which shall not be moved: He will judge the people with justice.

V. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad, let the sea be moved, and the fullness thereof: the fields and all things that are in them shall be joyful.
R. Then shall all the trees of the woods rejoice before the Face of the Lord, because He cometh: because He cometh to judge the earth.

V. He shall judge the world with justice, and the people with His truth.

V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
R. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, forever, unto ages of ages. Amen.

All: Then shall all the trees of the woods rejoice before the Face of the Lord, because He cometh: because He cometh to judge the earth.

Lesson: Ezechiel 17:22-24. Thus saith the Lord God: I Myself will take of the marrow of the high cedar and will set it: I will crop off a tender limb from the top of the branches thereof, and I will plant it on a mountain high and eminent. On the high mountains of Israel will I plant it, and it shall shoot forth into branches and bear fruit, and it shall become a great cedar: and all birds shall dwell under it, and every fowl shall make its nest under the shadow of the branches thereof. And all the trees of the country shall know that I, the Lord, have brought down the high tree, and exalted the low tree: and have dried up the green tree, and have caused the dry tree to flourish. I the Lord have spoken and have done it.

R. Deo Gratias.

Let us Pray

Holy Lord, Father Almighty Eternal God, Who hast caused Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be planted like a Tree of Life in Thy Church by being born of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, bless, we beseech Thee, this tree, that all who see it may be filled with a holy desire to be engrafted as living branches into the same our Lord Jesus Christ, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost, One God, forever, unto ages of ages. Amen.

As the Father sprinkles the decorated tree with holy water, he says:
Almighty God, we beseech Thee to bless this Tree, which we have adorned with lights to honor the Birth of Thy only-begotten Son, Christ, the Light of the World.

All: O beautiful and radiant tree, adorned with the Purple of the King, and chosen as the worthy trunk that was to touch limbs so holy. O blessed Tree, upon whose outstretched arms hung the Ransom of the world; it was made the support of the Sacred Body of Our Divine Lord, and thereby snatched away the expected prey of Hell.

V. Christ is the Tree of Eternal Life,
R. In the midst of the Garden of Paradise.

V. He is the Tree,
R. As we are the branches.

V. In Him is Life;
R. And the Life is the Light of men.

V. The Lord be with us.
R. Now and forever. Amen.

Let us Pray

Bless, we beseech Thee, O holy God, Father Almighty, this noble Tree, which we have adorned in honor of the new Birth of Thine only-begotten Son, and do Thou so adorn our souls with the manifold beauties of Thy grace, that being spiritually enlightened by the splendor radiating from this Tree, we may, like the Three Holy Kings, come to adore Him Who is Eternal Light and Beauty, the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the Unity of the Holy Ghost, One God, forever, unto ages of ages. Amen.

This is from http://www.salvemariaregina.info/Prayers/Advent.html#Blessing%20of%20the%20Christmas%20Tree

http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/crickets/domest.wav

Now I know why nobody has me on "Ignore." No one is paying attention to me to begin with.  :cry:

There is nothing "pagan" about Christmas or the day the Church chose to celebrate it on. Most people who believe Christmas has pagan origins are puritans.

There is nothing "pagan" about Christmas or the day the Church chose to celebrate it on. Most people who believe Christmas has pagan origins are puritans.

I agree, although not sure about the christms tree and santa claus.

I'm so depressed.

In his Remnant interview, Dr. Maxie told us the Israelis were helping Christians...

But it says here, they want to abolish our Christmas trees?



The terror lurking in a Christmas tree

24 December 2012

 
Israel tries to ban non-Jєωιѕн celebrations
 
Israeli Occupation Archive – 23 December 2012
 
Israel’s large Palestinian minority is often spoken of in terms of the threat it poses to the Jєωιѕн majority. Palestinian citizens’ reproductive rate constitutes a “demographic timebomb”, while their main political programme – Israel’s reform into “a state of all its citizens” – is proof for most Israeli Jєωs that their compatriots are really a “fifth column”.
 
But who would imagine that Israeli Jєωs could be so intimidated by the innocuous Christmas tree?
 
This issue first came to public attention two years ago when it was revealed that Shimon Gapso, the mayor of Upper Nazareth, had banned Christmas trees from all public buildings in his northern Israeli city.
 
“Upper Nazareth is a Jєωιѕн town and all its symbols are Jєωιѕн,” Gapso said. “As long as I hold office, no non-Jєωιѕн symbol will be presented in the city.”
 
The decision reflected in part his concern that Upper Nazareth, built in the 1950s as the centrepiece of the Israeli government’s “Judaisation of the Galilee” programme, was failing dismally in its mission.
 
Far from “swallowing up” the historic Palestinian city of Nazareth next door, as officials had intended, Upper Nazareth became over time a magnet for wealthier Nazarenes who could no longer find a place to build a home in their own city. That was because almost all Nazareth’s available green space had been confiscated for the benefit of Upper Nazareth.
 
Instead Nazarenes, many of them Palestinian Christians, have been buying homes in Upper Nazareth from Jєωs – often immigrants from the former Soviet Union – desperate to leave the Arab-dominated Galilee and head to the country’s centre, to be nearer Tel Aviv.
 
The exodus of Jєωs and influx of Palestinians have led the government to secretly designate Upper Nazareth as a “mixed city”, much to the embarrassment of Gapso. The mayor is a stalwart ally of far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman and regularly expresses virulently anti-Arab views, including recently calling Nazarenes “Israel-hating residents whose place is in Gaza” and their city “a nest of terror in the heart of the Galilee”.
 
Although neither Gapso nor the government has published census figures to clarify the city’s current demographic balance, most estimates suggest that at least a fifth of Upper Nazareth’s residents are Palestinian. The city’s council chamber also now includes Palestinian representatives.
 
But Gapso is not alone in his trenchant opposition to making even the most cursory nod towards multiculturalism. The city’s chief rabbi, Isaiah Herzl, has refused to countenance a single Christmas tree in Upper Nazareth, arguing that it would be “offensive to Jєωιѕн eyes”.
 
That view, it seems, reflects the official position of the country’s rabbinate. In so far as they are able, the rabbis have sought to ban Christmas celebrations in public buildings, including in the hundreds of hotels across the country.
 
A recent report in the Haaretz newspaper, on an Israeli Jєω who grows Christmas trees commercially, noted in passing: “hotels – under threat of losing kashrut certificates – are prohibited by the rabbinate from decking their halls in boughs of holly or, heaven forbid, putting up even the smallest of small sparkly Christmas tree in the corner of the lobby.”
 
In other words, the rabbinate has been quietly terrorising Israeli hotel owners into ignoring Christmas by threatening to use its powers to put them out of business. Denying a hotel its kashrut (kosher) certificate would lose it most of its Israeli and foreign Jєωιѕн clientele.
 
Few mayors or rabbis find themselves in the uncomfortable position of needing to go public with their views on the dangers of Christmas decorations. In Israel, segregation between Jєωs and Palestinians is almost complete. Even most of the handful of mixed cities are really Jєωιѕн cities with slum-like ghettoes of Palestinians living on the periphery.
 
Apart from Upper Nazareth, the only other “mixed” place where Palestinian Christians are to be found in significant numbers is Haifa, Israel’s third largest city. Haifa is often referred to as Israel’s most multicultural and tolerant city, a title for which it faces very little competition.
 
But the image hides a dirtier reality. A recent letter from Haifa’s rabbinate came to light in which the city’s hotels and events halls were reminded that they must not host New Year’s parties at the end of this month (the Jєωιѕн New Year happens at a different time of year). The hotels and halls were warned that they would be denied their kashrut licences if they did so.
 
“It is a seriously forbidden to hold any event at the end of the calendar year that is connected with or displays anything from the non-Jєωιѕн festivals,” the letter states.
 



After the letter (above) was publicised on Facebook, Haifa’s mayor, Yona Yahav, moved into damage limitation mode, overruling the city’s rabbinical council on Sunday and insisting that parties would be allowed to go ahead. Whether Yahav has the power to enforce his decision on the notoriously independent-minded rabbinical authorities is still uncertain.
 
But what is clear is that there is plenty of religious intolerance verging on hatred being quietly exercised against non-Jєωs, mostly behind the scenes so as not to disturb Israel’s “Jєωιѕн and democratic” image or outrage the millions of Christian tourists and pilgrims who visit Israel each year.


Jonathan Cooke report from Israel