IS 9:1-6
have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.
You have brought them abundant joy
and great rejoicing,
as they rejoice before you as at the harvest,
as people make merry when dividing spoils.
For the yoke that burdened them,
the pole on their shoulder,
and the rod of their taskmaster
you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.
For every boot that tramped in battle,
every cloak rolled in blood,
will be burned as fuel for flames.
upon his shoulder dominion rests.
They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero,
Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.
His dominion is vast
and forever peaceful,
from David’s throne, and over his kingdom,
which he confirms and sustains
by judgment and justice,
both now and forever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this!
GospelLK 2:1-14
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus
that the whole world should be enrolled.
This was the first enrollment,
when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.
And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth
to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem,
because he was of the house and family of David,
to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
While they were there,
the time came for her to have her child,
and she gave birth to her firstborn son.
She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields
and keeping the night watch over their flock.
The angel of the Lord appeared to them
and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were struck with great fear.
The angel said to them,
“Do not be afraid;
for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David
a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.
And this will be a sign for you:
you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes
and lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel,
praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
This is a Christmas post. Absolutely no tolerance will be given to any off topic comments. Please respect the intent and nature of this post, keeping it open for Christmas greetings and comments.

Merry Christmas to all.
AWESOME
Thank you, Sundance, and Merry Christmas!
A happy and holy Christmas to you Menagerie, Sundance and ALL our blessed Treepers.
.
I like to remember that God dwells in the darkness — not in the light– because God -IS-the light.
1 Kings 8:12; Exodus 20:21; Deuteronomy 5:22; Psalm 18:11; Psalm 97:2; 1 John 1:5.
Merry Christmas all.
.
The light shines in darkness
And the darkness cannot extinguish it!
https://biblehub.com/john/1-5.htm
Merry Christmas to all!
🙏 🙏 🙏 ✝️ ✝️ 🙏 🙏 🙏 🙏
Hallelujah, a Savior is born. Thanks be to God.
Merry Christmas to all & to all a good night.
Thank you Menagerie !!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL !!
I love that –
Father Mitch Pacwa quotes from that on the “Holy Rosary in the Holy Land” for the third Luminous Mystery, when Jesus gave his “Sermon on the Mount” –
hearing the Gospel when reciting the Rosary is one of the great comforts and reinforcements – as Padre Pio said, it is one of the greatest weapons, praying the rosary.
The birth of a child is humanities greatest gift, non can surpass.
He wept.
Merry Christmas to everyone at CTH! I’ve learned so much from all of you!
Watching the “Midnight Mass from the Holy Land”. When I lived in New York, I always watched the TV service from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Love the liturgy. Wishing everyone a blessed Christmas.🙏😇🙌🏻
God bless all the Treepers and our dear Sundance and family and friends!!! Thank you, and never give up the hope and faith that Christ brings to us all!
A Joyous Christmas to All, and a Happy Birthday to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! All glory be to God. Alleluia and Amen!
Merry Christmas everyone.
We are Forged in Fire – The Pain You Feel Today Will Be the Strength You Feel Tomorrow
Jessica’s mom had “ugly hands”. Everyone used to laugh at Jessica’s mom. They used to say, “oh her hands are all scarred, they’re all disgusting, they’re all red, they’re all patchy”. And Jessica, herself, was rather scared of her mom’s hands.
At times she wouldn’t even want to hold her own mother’s hands, and other times the boys and girls at school, they would laugh at Jessica. In fact, one day it was so bad that Jessica just spent the whole evening crying her eyes out in bed, saying, “I hate mommy! I hate mommy because she has ugly hands!”
So her father went into the room and said, “Jessica, do you know why your mom’s hands look the way they do? When you were but a little baby there was a fire in our house and the staircase was on fire and you were up in the very top bedroom, but your mother was on the ground floor. So do you know what your mom did? She grabbed a blanket. She wrapped it around her waste. And then she climbed up to the top of the meta gutter pipe that led up to the bedroom.”
“Every time she puts her hands on that hot gutter pipe it burns, Tsss! Tsss! Tsss!. But she got you, she saved you, and she brought you to safety in the garden. When it was all over, the firemen looked at mom’s hands and saw they were a mess. You couldn’t even recognize that they were hands: they were so blotchy, they were so red. That’s why your mom has ugly hands.”
In that moment Jessica ran out of her bed and she ran into her mother’s bedroom, and she started kissing her mom’s hands, and saying mom you have the most beautiful hands in the world.
God’s message was the same.
The people of the world look at Jesus’s pierced hands and see them as ugly, but to those who know the truth, we think they are the most beautiful hands in the world.
Those hands were pierced, they had nails driven through them for all the times that your hands have hurt people or done cruel and nasty things.
He also had his feet pierced. His feet has nails pierced through them for all the time that your feet have walked to places you know you should not be, but you stayed there, even though your conscience was telling you to get out.
And Jesus Christ, he had his brow pierced. He wore a crown of thorns for all the times your mind has thought evil things, your mind has thought rude things, shameful things.
May I add that Jesus had his heart pierced for all those sins we commit which break His heart.
—Added by Karmy
There the son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, suffered on that cross to rescue us. Because just like that little baby up in that top bedroom we will die in our sins.
Jesus paid our debt of sin, so long as you believe this, here is his promise:
Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? —John 11:25-26
Excerpt from: https://tritorch.substack.com/p/the-gathering-of-the-light
Merry Christmas, dear Griever 🌲💕
Thank you for your gift to us of this story which magnifies so deeply and beautifully the love our Father has for us in the birth of the Son of man, our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ on this most joyful …and humbling…day.
God abide with you and bless you always, my friend. B
His only begotten Son.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE…
A weary world rejoices…!
Thank You, so much. Rejoice! A Great Gift has been given to us, the People. For unto us a Child was born…and He made ALL the difference in the World and Eternity. Rejoice! May the joy of Christmas fill everyone’s heart today and every day of the New Year.
Grateful for our future as a Nation. Merry Christmas!
Noel, a Christmas Poem by JRR Tolkien (Video: Beautifully Read)
http://OneRing.com
This poem, Noel, was written by J.R.R. Tolkien before The Hobbit was published, and only just discovered in 2013. Here’s how that happened!
In 2013, Tolkien scholars Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull found something they didn’t expect.
While researching a 1936 edition of The Tablet (a Catholic journal), they found mention of 2 Tolkien poems published in the Abingdon Annual of Our Lady’s School — a still active school in Abingdon!
The school directed them where to find the 80 year-old publication. In it, they found an early version of Tolkien’s poem The Shadow Bride (here titled The Shadow Man) and this poem, Noel!
There is distinct beauty in the images Tolkien creates; it resonates profoundly with the winter season’s cold and desolate landscape… but the heavens and earth are overwhelmed with joy by the eucatastrophe (as Tolkien would put it) of Christ’s birth.
Special thanks to Austin Robertson for the reading – Visit Austin Robertson Voiceovers
Listen; Watch
Handle’s Messiah… Amen & Amen
God Bless you, Mrs. Sundance! Thank you for the generosity of sharing your husband with the rest of the Treeper Community.
May God continue to Bless us and Our Country, Amen.
Joseph, I’ve never met Sundance. God bless you as well.
Merry Christmas
My husband and I wish everyone a BLESSED CHRISTMAS!
Merry Christmas Menagerie, Sundance and all who have found a nook in this Treehouse!
I read the story of Tom Sawyer to my young daughters.
We read the part of Tom and Becky lost in the cave by the light of a single candle.
When Tom’s last candle gave out we snuffed our candle and sat in darkness.
It impacted my daughter’s imagination much more than I realized at the time.
Imagine if you can sitting in complete darkness and the last vestige of hope is gone.
Then imagine your rescuer coming towards you with a light.
This is how we should view the gift of life and love that is Christ.
Thank you all for the fine company and companionship I find here at TCTH
Merry Christmas
monti
Have been there, Monticello. Amen. Thank you. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Amen! Good word! Let us live for Him!
Merry Christmas, Treepers!
“Glory to God in the highest”, amen!
Merry Christmas, Menagerie and all the wonderful CTH Community!
God Bless and keep you all, and may you have a marvelous Christmas Day and a Happy New Year.
Peace be yours and ours, all across our land!
“Mary’s boy child Jesus Christ was born on Christmas Day.” From the singing trio GENTRI with accompaniment from Rise Up Children’s Choir and the Lyceum Orchestra….
Merry Christmas to all the Treepers.
Merry X-Mas to all and may the new year bless us all with prosperity and long life 🖖🏻
Amen. Merry Christmas and God Bless everyone. Thank you Sundance.
Merry Christmas to all!! Have a blessed day.
Merry Christmas to everyone
CTH
God Bless and have a Spirit filled
Merry Christmas
✝️🙏🎄
Merry Christmas!
“The key to a life of purpose is to appreciate God in all things; understand that a loving God surrounds you every day and cherishes you. Do not let your heart be troubled with dark imaginings of tomorrow. Live your very best life in the today that is immediately in front of you. Yesterday is gone, you cannot change it. Tomorrow is unknown, you cannot live it. Today is yours. Today is a gift, that’s why it’s called the present.” Merry Christmas to all.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to The Treehouse! Thank you for all you do, and thank you, Lord, for our salvation!
Merry Christmas to all!
May your day be great!
A God Filled and Blessed Christmas to all!
It is a very merry Christmas, to go from facing another age of Christian martyrs, to suddenly having our country back.
Much work to be done, but now the chance to do it. America’s providential history continues.
The good news continues, on this anniversary of the original good news. I am not yet sick of all the saving.
So easy to lose our way! Jesus is the Light to get us back on track. Let’s Follow Him.
Blessed Christmas to all.
Merry Christmas to all!
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.
Wishing Sundance, Menagerie, Weweed, and all Treepers the blessings of this season of hope.
Merry Christmas!
John 1:1-13
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Amen
Watch – the light and wonder shining on their faces – !
https://x.com/JackPosobiec/status/1871749243297472662
Merry Chistmas to you🌟