My husband and I love buying books for our children, and Christmas brings another wonderful excuse to shower them with stories about one of our favorite feast days. This year on his feast day, St. Nicholas benevolently decided to leave each child a book under their candy-filled shoes, and one of those books has instantly become a family classic. It is called “Christmas in Noisy Village,” by Astrid Lindgren and Ilon Wikland. In this charming story, seven little children who live on neighboring farms busy themselves with the preparations for Christmas and then celebrate the holiday in joyful style. As to the title, the book tells us “everyone calls the farms Noisy Village because there are so many children around making noise all the time.”
It should come as no surprise that our children immediately took to this story, because they are their own Noisy Village unto themselves.
Ordinarily I quite enjoy the bustle of our household, but as Christmas approaches and my responsibilities as a wife and mother seem to increase exponentially, I find myself longing for just a few moments of quiet (which may or may not be followed by a whispered pleading, “for heaven’s sake”). I receive Christmas cards in the mail and see iconic renditions of Madonna and Child; I yearn for the contemplative Christmas depicted in the stable.
Thus reading about the children in Noisy Village has been an excellent exercise for me as we make our final preparations for Christmas. In the story, the children aren’t getting into mischief and aren’t being especially wild. Simply by being little children, and being excited as children ought to be, for Christmas, they generate a lot of noise.
In fact, reading about the children of Noisy Village got me thinking that the first Christmas wasn’t exactly a Silent Night, either. Between the animals mooing and braying around the Infant, the shepherds arriving hastily in a crowd, and the multitude of angels singing glory to God in the highest, Bethlehem seems to have erupted in a near-symphony of joyful Noise that first Christmas.
The Noisy Village of Bethlehem, the Noisy Village in my children’s story book, and the Noisy Village in my living room, remind me that any one who is committed to seeing the triumph of the culture of life must embrace the Noise of Christmas. While the culture of life is built on the foundation of the silent prayers of committed followers of Christ, its building blocks are diaper pins and Lego pieces and cheerfully accepted requests for “just one more story.”
Even those among us who are not currently in the season of raising small children still benefit from seeking out these pockets of Christmas Noise, by perhaps donating toys to an organization that is collecting them for less fortunate children. Or by running – not walking – to push open the doors when one spies a mother bustling into the mall with her baby in a stroller.
The loudness and the inherent messiness of childhood reminds us of the squalor of the stable in Bethlehem where God chose to become a tiny Baby. Christ came to give speech to the mute, yes, but also shouts and squeals of joy to the child, because He did not come simply to give life, but life abundantly. Celebrating in that reality helps us to come more deeply into the mystery of it.
Jenna Craine and her husband Patrick, LifeSiteNews’ Associate Editor, are raising their three small children in rural Ontario. She is currently putting her Bachelor of Arts in English to good use by telling homespun stories about a pig named Osso and an elf named Bebo.
Editor's Note: As has been our custom for over a decade, LifeSiteNews is again this year publishing Christmas reflections by our staff. For a full listing of this year's reflections, click here.