Today's American Minute

Christmas celebrated for over 2,000 years and Memorable Presidential Christmas Messages

December 26, 2023

LISTEN (text to speech) Download as PDF ... President John F. Kennedy stated December 17, 1962: "Christmas ... is the most sacred and hopeful day in our civilization." For over 2,000 years, Christmas has been one of the world's most celebrated dates. Clovis, King of the Francs, was baptized with 3,000 of his soldiers on Christmas Day at Rheims, France by Saint Remigius. The name Clovis evolved into Louis, which was the name of 22 French kings. On Christmas Day, 597 A.D., 10,000 Anglo-Saxons were baptized in England on the banks of the Swale sea inlet between...

Christmas Prophecies and Fulfillments "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman ... to redeem those who were under the law" - American Minute with Bill Federer

December 24, 2023 • Christmas Prophecies: "Through Jesus Christ the world will yet be a better and a fairer place" President Truman - American Minute with Bill Federer

On CHRISTMAS, DECEMBER 24, 1946, President Truman stated: "Our ... hopes of future years turn to a little town in the hills of Judea where on a winter's night two thousand years ago the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled."

CHRISTMAS DAY "The Great Divide for the Timing of All Events on Earth...where the Magnetic Needle of History stands Vertical and Points Up" - American Minute with Bill Federer

December 22, 2023 • CHRISTMAS DAY "The Great Divide for the Timing of All Events on Earth...where the Magnetic Needle of History stands Vertical and Points Up"

Susan K Roll wrote in Toward the Origins of Christmas, 1995 (pp. 100-101): "Saint John Chrysostom's third argument follows ... that Zachariah was ... priest during the Feast of Tabernacles in the year John the Baptist was conceived. Chrysostom counts off the months of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, and dates Mary’s conception from the sixth month of Elizabeth’s ... then counts off another nine months to arrive at the birthdate of Christ."

"I Heard the Bells..." Christmas Tree, Lights, Poinsettia, Carols, & White House Christmas Celebrations - American Minute with Bill Federer

December 21, 2023 • "I Heard the Bells..." Christmas Tree • & White House Christmas Celebrations • Carols • Lights • Poinsettia

Henry Van Dyke wrote in The First Christmas Tree, 1906, of Saint Boniface - Wynfred chopped down Thor's oak tree: "'... Courage, brothers, and forward yet a little ... this Christmas eve ... For this is the Yuletide, and the heathen people of the forest have gathered at the thunder-oak of Geismar to worship their god, Thor ... 'Bring the axes' ... they grasped the axe-helves and swung the shining blades ... A strong, whirling wind ... gripped the oak ... Backward it fell ... crashing as it split asunder ..." 'And here.' said he, as his eyes fell on a young fir-tree, standing straight and green ... Let us call it the tree of the Christ-child ..."

Beethoven, Famous Composers, & their sacred Christmas music - American Minute with Bill Federer

December 20, 2023 • & their sacred Christmas music • Beethoven • Famous Composers

Not only was Friedrich Shillers's "Ode to Joy" set to Beethoven's Ninth, but so was "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee," a hymn written in 1907 by Princeton professor Henry Van Dyke:

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,

God of glory, Lord of love;

Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee,

opening to the sun above.