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Timmy's Gift, A Precious Moments Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas By Michael Nerbun ***** rating We decided to suggest two cartoon type movies because of their strong messages about the true meaning of Christmas. Timmy's Gift is about a young angel who sees himself as unimportant, with small wings and a patched and torn blanket to call his own. The other angels give him the "great and noble task" of taking the newborn King a crown. You, as a child, can relate to Timmy because sometimes children feel too small or inadequate to do something really important. As Timmy follows the star to the King he has an adventurous and happy time. Timmy learns that reaching the King with the crown is really made up of many experiences and challenges just like every child must face. He learns that joy in life comes with courage, caring, seeing the good in others, sharing what we have and learning that friends are more important than things. As is said in the movie, "All of life depends upon great deeds accomplished by regular people just like you and me." Timmy's Gift is definitely about the first Christmas. Now, How the Grinch Stole Christmas is not religious and is a funny and silly cartoon, but it still has a very good message about celebrating Jesus' birth. The words from the movie that best describe the Grinch are that he "stink, stank, stunk!" The Grinch succeeds in stealing all the presents, decorations and Christmas food from the Whos in Whoville. But somehow Christmas "just came just the same." The Grinch sees that it is the "heart to heart and hand to hand" love that really welcomes Christmas day each year. Our family likes How the Grinch Stole Christmas so much that my sister named her two cats Mr. Grinch and Cindy Lou Who, and we named our dogs Max (after the Grinch's reindeer-dog!) and Who (after the joyful Whos from Whoville.) These are two short movies that we like to watch every year at Christmas time. The music is great too! After you watch them you can talk together. Before you watch: Talk about what you think are the most important things about Christmas. After you watch: Which movie did you think had a better message? How were they the same? In Timmy's Gift what was the first lesson he learned and why shouldn't you go by your first impressions? Compare your heart to the Grinch's heart in How the Grinch Stole Christmas? What can help you have a bigger heart? Michael and his mother, Ann, watched this and other movies and talk about them together. Michael is 11 and in the fifth grade. He has six brothers and sisters and one niece. Home Copyright © 1999-2007, Daughters of St. Paul. All Rights Reserved.
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