How A Festival of Mini-Trees Revived Christmas For Me by Anna Taylor Sweringen

Anniversaries, birthdays, even seasonal holidays are just days on the calendar for me and my husband. Often, it’s well wishes from friends in ecards, texts and on Facebook notifying us that a reason to celebrate has arrived. The only exception I’m happy to say is Christmas. 

Let us return to 2014…

I sat on the board of directors of an ecumenical center in Long Island called the Parish Resource Center. It helps church lay people do tasks assigned to them. Lead a bible study, teach a Sunday school class, run a vacation bible school. Whatever help they needed, they could come to PRC for help. Anyway, many of Long Island’s tree farms host huge tree lighting displays which draw hundreds of people. As a fundraiser in 2014 the PRC decided to do a mini-tree display. Staff and center subscribers created inventive trees to raffle off as gifts and home decor. Some were quite seasonal with angels, stars, bows and berries. Some were thematically fun with Santas and a moose. One was practical making a baby-items tree to celebrate the birth of the Christ child. I took pictures back to my church in Paterson, NJ so my members could buy tickets for the trees they wished to win. Lugging the winning trees in shopping bags on the Long Island Railroad and New Jersey Transit trains is a fond Christmas memory.

Fast forward to 2017…

In 2017 I retired and moved to Albuquerque. My first Christmas was warm and wonderful. On my side of town, the sun melts any snow away by noon just like Camelot. My neighbors decorated their yards with large blow-up figures and inventive light displays. I thought about how I might decorate for the holiday. I went to a Christian bookstore in search of gifts for family and came across a series of handmade angels made by a shut in from one of the local churches. She was selling them on consignment. What lovely decorations for a tree. I thought. But as I shared earlier my husband and I aren’t big holiday celebraters. We’ve never even had a tree. In the past I’d hang garland decorated with instruments and bows. Maybe I could do the same with these angels.  But then I remembered the PRC’s mini-tree festival and thought, “Why not?” I can buy a mini-tree and put these lovely angels on them. I bought them all. The bookstore also had glass angels. My spirit soared. I’d buy them too and make a mini-angel tree.

Not only did I create the tree, but I joined my neighbors in decorating the whole house and my yard as well.

When Christmas comes around, I can’t wait to pull out my decorations and get creative. I create wreaths and Christmas villages and put nativity displays all over my house.  I now have five mini trees that take over our dining room table every year: a mini tree displaying the tiny ornaments from a Metropolitan Museum of Art advent calendar, two more dedicated to our pets and famous pets from the White House. I also created a Kwanzaa mini tree with ornaments I’d bought way back when I was in seminary but never displayed. And a Christmas village that occupies half our living room floor.

As I look back on this decorating tradition, I realize how being creative has revived the spirit of Christmas for me. As a minister my focus during Advent and Christmas was to make sure everyone else enjoyed the season. Thus, developing services and activities for others often meant I never stopped to take time for myself. Now my decorating allows me to get into the spirit of the season and rediscover its joys for myself.

Whatever holiday you celebrate - Diwali, Hannukah, Yule, Christmas or Kwanzaa - I hope some tradition enables you to be filled with the meaning of that celebration and to carry that spirit with you into the new year. 

                                         

 

Michal Scott is the steamy historical romance pen name of Anna Taylor Sweringen, a retired United Church of Christ and Presbyterian Church USA minister. Inspired by the love mystics of Begijn, Audre Lourde and bell hooks, Anna seeks to write romance that can be simultaneously spiritual and steamy. She loves writing historical romance to give insight into black love and resilience in the African American experience in the US. Besides steamy historical romance, she writes inspirational and sweet romance as Anna Taylor and second chance ghost mystery romances as Anna M. Taylor. Sign up for Michal's newsletter so she can keep in touch with you: https://mailchi.mp/106e6b05cdfe/michal-scotts-newsletter

Michal has Christmas-setting short stories in two of Delilah Devlin’s Boys Behaving Badly anthologies. The latest, "Take Me To The Water," is available in Silver Soldiers which came out in 2023. The first, "The $5.00 Kiss of Life," came out in First Response back in 2019.

Blue Christmas is More Than An Elvis Presley Song by Anna Taylor Sweringin

Happy Holidays is a beautiful sentiment if the holidays aren’t a time of grief and loss for you. The themes of the Advent wreath – hope, peace, joy and love – can feel very far off if you’re experiencing a dark night of the soul while everyone around you is singing “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” Platitudes and cliches only deepen the sense of isolation one feels when everyone else is cheerful and you’re not.

That’s why when I became responsible for pastoral care at First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens, I developed a Blue Christmas service. Usually held on December 21 (the longest night of the year) Blue Christmas services create safe space for those who for whom the holidays is, and may always be, sad. These services remind us it really is alright to cry because crying makes us feel better. These services say God is present with you, blessing your tears, holding your hurt in God’s hands.

A typical service follows the regular order of worship one might find on a Sunday morning, but with some significant differences.

I choose songs that remind attendees they are not forgotten. Standards like “Be Not Dismayed Whate’er Betide, God Will Take Care of You” and “I’m So Glad Trouble Don’t Last Always” are sung loudly and proudly but without condescension. Responsive prayers are said which acknowledge with dignity the sorrow and pain of loss. Litanies are recited whose words dispel any sense of blame, shame or guilt. Old Testament scriptures emphasize that the journey from darkness to light is a normal part of life.

Readings from the Psalms emphasize lament, like Psalm 22, “My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me?” to help attendees realize they’re not the first in this situation. Jesus spoke these words from the cross. They also lift up the truth that God’s power is at their disposal as expressed in the 23rd and 121st Psalms. New Testament scriptures like Romans 8:26 which assures us the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Meditations written by those whose meditations are based on her own experience with suffering make the message shared one that is authentic and relatable.

In our service attendees are invited to come forward and light candles for each loss that is on their heart. This small act of agency demonstrates that even when we feel powerless, we do have power. Then as a reverse offering, glass stones with scripture on them lay in the offering plate for them to take as a reminder that God’s word is always within reach.

Here are links to two sample services. You’ll see one size does not fit all, but each service attempts to serve the emotional needs of those present:

https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/blue-christmas-a-service-of-reflection-for-the-longest-night,

https://youngclergywomen.org/blue-christmas-service-when-christmas-hurts/

If you’ve never attended a Blue Christmas service, consider doing so. You will come away with insights and resources that could make you a source of light and genuine comfort for someone going through a rough time.

Anna Taylor Sweringen lives in New Mexico with her husband and their rescue cat Scully. She writes inspirational romance as Anna Taylor, gothic/ghost stories as Anna M. Taylor and steamy historicals as Michal Scott. She blogs monthly on Delilah Devlin’s blog where she shares bits of history about African-American women. You can follow Anna as Michal Scott on Twitter @mscottauthor1 and @revannable or as Anna M. Taylor on FB at https://www.facebook.com/annamtaylorAuthor.

All Hallow’s Eve: All Treat, No Trick by Anna Taylor Sweringen

One of my favorite lines from the movie Chariots of Fire has soon-to-be Olympic champion and missionary Eric Liddell explain to his sister how he didn’t want a youngster playing soccer on the Sabbath to think God’s a spoil sport. When I was on staff as the minister for Christian Education, I had to find ways for our kids to have fun walk so they didn’t get the impression that being a Christian meant they couldn’t have fun. How to celebrate Halloween in ways that were kid-friendly and enjoyable, but also didn’t ruffle the feathers of the older generation is a case in point. I always began by helping the elders understand how we got here from there.

All Hallow’s Eve or Halloween is a combo of two different religious traditions. The first is the festival of Samhain celebrated by the Celts of ancient Britain and Ireland. On that day – by our calendar November 1 – the new year was believed to begin because of the onset of winter. Herds were brought in from pasture and leases on land were renewed. The souls of those who died were believed to return and visit their homes. People set bonfires to scare any evil spirits away and even wore masks so as not to be recognized by the ghosts

The second is All Saints’ Day, when the saints of the church could be remembered, established by Pope Boniface to be celebrated on May 13. But as had been done with the appropriation of December 25th to supplant Yule festivals with the observance of Christ’s birth, so too All Saint’s Day was moved to coincide with the November 1 date and supplant Samhain. The night before, October 31, became All Hallow’s Eve.

Many churches hold All Hallow’s Eve and All Saint’s parties rather than Halloween/Trick or Treat parties to bring a faith element into the celebration. In my story Haunted Serenade the heroine’s daughter attends a local church’s All Hallow’s Eve party not unlike the ones our children and youth program hosted. We’d sing hymns like "I Sing A Song of the Saints of God" as part of the festivities, hold costume parades, bob for apples, eat Halloween fare and engage in activities like Trick or Treat that combined facets of Christian living with the holiday fun. Knowing they were helping children all over the world make trick or treating fun and educational for our kids.

We’d return to the church and continue our partying for All Hallow’s Eve in the fellowship hall all decked out much the way these stoops of Strivers’ Row houses in Harlem are. I continue to create Halloween wreaths for my door to put out a welcome mat for trick-or-treaters of all ages. One day I hope to return to that church and see what activities now provide the All Hallow’s Eve fun.

~*~

Blurb

All the women in Anora Madison's family have lived haunted by the curse of Poor Butterfly: women still longing for but deserted by the men they loved. Determined to be the first to escape a life of abandonment, Anora fled Harlem for Brooklyn, not only severing her ties with her mother Angela, but also ending her relationship with Winston Emerson, her lover and the father of her child.

Six years later, Anora comes home to make peace, but an unseen evil manifests itself during the homecoming and targets not only Anora, but her little girl Cammie.

With nowhere to run, Anora must confront the evil now trying to destroy her life. She vows to protect her daughter at all costs, but if that protection can only be found with Winston back in her life, how will Anora protect her heart?

Buylink: https://amzn.to/3aXifyu

Bio: Anna Taylor Sweringen is a minister with the United Church of Christ and Presbyterian Church USA. Anna M. Taylor is her gothic romance and women’s fiction penname. She has been writing seriously since joining Romance Writers of America in 2003. She also writes inspirational romance as Anna Taylor and steamy historical romance as Michal Scott.


Anna M. Taylor website: https://annamtaylor.webs.com

Amazon Author page: https://amzn.to/355nKv0

Anna M. Taylor FB Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/annamtaylorAuthor

Twitter: @revannable

Newsletter link: https://mailchi.mp/7d60e5679ab4/anna-m-taylor-writes

My Quiet New York by Anna Taylor Sweringen

Being a native New Yorker the roar and rush that is the normal pace of the city ran in me from sunrise to sunset. I took for granted how the city never sleeps, even if I rarely took advantage of the attractions that draw most tourists there like the Chrysler Building and Radio City Music Hall.

Yet amid the famous and infamous pace attributed to NYC, the city gave me a soul-satisfying quiet that kept me anchored in what was important to me. I think that’s why my favorite song from the musical Hamilton is "Quiet Uptown." The song is a reminder that New York has places of quiet that soothe and calm.

Below is a view of the UN from Four Freedoms Park. Located on the south end of Roosevelt Island, the park is a tribute to FDR’s famous four freedoms speech. I’d go there and just sit and let the quiet calm of the East River wash over me.

Another of my quiet places was the Brooklyn Promenade. You’d think a walkway built over a highway would be noisy, but sitting on one of the benches with Brooklyn Heights behind and the lower Manhattan skyline before always filled me with peace. I got the same sense of stillness riding the best free water ride available: the Staten Island Ferry. Just looking at this photo I can smell the ocean and the feel of the breeze on my face as I gazed at Lady Liberty.

The grandeur of the 42nd Street branch of the New York Public Library worked its magic on me too. I’d go to the main reading room, fondly remembering thumbing through the old card catalogues then requesting a book and sitting on the bench until my number appeared until I could pick it up just like in the scene in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Now it’s a research library, but the majesty of the murals painted in tribute to the written word instills a sumptuous stillness of their own.

The quiet continues uptown in the Harlem spaces of St. Nicholas Park, City College and Strivers Row, locations in my Haunted Harlem series.

It’s not only quiet uptown but all over the city if you know where to look. I hope you’ll be able to experience my quiet New York someday.

Social media links:

Website: www.annamtaylor.webs.com

Anna M. Taylor FB Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/annamtaylorAuthor

Amazon author page: https://amzn.to/355nKv0

Anna M. Taylor newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/7d60e5679ab4/anna-m-taylor-writes

Twitter: @revannable

Anna Taylor Sweringen has been a member of RWA since 2003. Her first story, Through A Glass Darkly, was an inspirational romance published by White Rose Publishing in 2008 under the penname Anna Taylor. Her Michal Scott steamy historical novellas and short stories are published with the Wild Rose Press, Delilah Devlin’s Boys Behaving Badly anthologies and two charity anthologies published by Passionate Ink. She has been self-publishing her gothic romance ghost stories as Anna M. Taylor since 2020. Her novellas, Who Can Find A Virtuous Woman and Haunted Serenade both won third place in their respective categories in the 2022 National Excellence in Storytelling contest.