December eighteenth, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" (1962). Amid the anxiety of the Cuban missile crisis, Unitarian Noel Regney wrote the text for “Do You Hear What I Hear?” as a protest song. The music was composed by his then-wife, Gloria Shayne Baker. The song's allusions to the Bible stories of...

December Seventeenth, Rod Serling’s Christmas Specials (1963). Though Jewish, Rod Serling always loved Christmas (maybe because his birthday was December twenty-fifth). He became a Unitarian Universalist while in college and later joined the Unitarian Community Church of Santa Monica. He wrote...

December fifteenth, the First American Christmas Tree (1832). Unitarian Minister Charles Follen delighted his son and party guests with a Christmas tree as he had growing up in Germany. They had postponed the festivities until New Years so that British author and Unitarian Harriet Martineau could...

December twelfth, Christmas Day is Clara Barton’s Birthday (1821). Clara Barton, Universalist and founder of the American Red Cross, is a hero of our liberal religious faith. We remember her around the holidays season since she was born Christmas Day, 1821. But in the season when we recall the...

December tenth, Christmas Scenes in "Little Women" (1868). Unitarian Louisa May Alcott wrote over a dozen Christmas-themed stories and poems in addition to the Christmas scenes in "Little Women.” Her description of a holiday with the March family nurtured a growing sense of American nostalgia for...

December ninth, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" (1849). "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” was written by Unitarian Minister Hamilton Sears while recovering from a nervous breakdown. The melancholy carol’s conspicuous omission of any reference to Jesus or his birth has drawn criticism from orthodox...

December eighth, first Christmas Tree in the White House Blue Room (1912). From the New York Times, December 26, 1912: "With the President and Mrs. Taft at Panama, their son and daughter established a new precedent at the White House in the way of a Christmas party to-night....

December sixth, The Modern Look and Lore of Santa Claus (1863). Universalist Thomas Nast produced over seventy illustrations of Santa. It is from Nast that the world first learned of Santa's red suit, that he gives coal if you're naughty, and even that Santa, as a world citizen, belonging to no...

December fifth, "Jingle Bells" (1857). First performed at a Thanksgiving event by the Sunday school children from the Unitarian Church in Savannah, GA who were led by the church music director and the song’s composer James Pierpont. “Jingle bells” was published in 1857, but only gained...

December third, Currier and Ives (1834). Founded by Unitarian Nathaniel Currier, the Currier and Ives Printing Firm published an annual set of winter images....

December first, "Over The River And Through The Woods" (1844). The song "Over the River and Through The Woods" is based on a poem by Unitarian author and human rights champion Lydia Maria Child. Inspiration for the poem came from her own childhood memories of Thanksgiving at her grandparents’...

In the bleak and cold winter, We gather ourselves in To light the fire to warm our spirits, To kindle the flame of love and hope.

For the sound of bow on string, Of breath over reed, Of touch on keyboard; For slants of sunlight through windows, For shimmering shadows on snow, For the whisper of wind on my face; For the smooth skin of an apple, For the caress of a collar on my neck; For the prickling of my skin when I am dee...

God of life and beauty: We pray for the quietness of snowflakes, knowing that love is quiet. We pray for the kindness of small acts, knowing gentleness is fragile....

May you know fully and deeply the blessings of each of your heart's seasons The inward turning of Winter Springtime's lush renewal The effortless, steady growth of summer And autumn's rich harvest May your passage from season to season be blessed— Eased by hands to hold, and by the light of love...

Come we now out of the darkness of our unknowing and the dusk of our dreaming; Come we now from far places. Come we now into the twilight of our awakening and the reflection of our gathering. Come we now all together. We bring, unilluminated, our dark caves of doubting; We seek, unbedazzled, the...

My friends, we have arrived: we are here, in this new year. We have crossed the boundary of time, into the next year, with all its resolutions and plans and schedules ahead of us. Let us pause, for just this moment, before we move boldly onward....

Advent, adventus, means waiting. And the holiday season is nothing if not waiting—to get done the chores; to find the right gift; to find time for quiet moments; to accept that our loved ones will not be as we wish them to be....

February is not for the faint hearted, I think.