By Sharon Mager, BCM/D Correspondent
Looking for a way to help your family keep Christ in Christmas? Check out “The Christmas Countdown,” written by Greensboro church member, Margie J. Harding. The book offers 25 ways to prepare our hearts for Christmas in the midst of the holiday shuffle. 
The first week’s devotions and activities focus on ways to slow down and truly prepare for Advent. Week two is devoted to who was waiting for the Savior when He came to earth as a baby, and who is waiting for Him to return today. The third week’s activities and readings ask the question “why are we waiting?” And the final week shares ideas for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day through Epiphany.
Throughout the book, there are Bible readings, devotionals with discussion questions, carols, crafts and recipes. Crafts include making an advent wreath, luminaries, popcorn garland and candle holders. Recipes include St. Lucia bread, Irish Christmas cookies, wassail and gingerbread cookies. The book is woven together in a homey comfortable narrative and Harding shares her own personal joys and struggles.
“The Christmas Countdown reminds us that Christmas is more than a shopping list. This book isn’t simply another list of things-to-do this December, but rather it is a plea to stop ‘doing’ and begin ‘being’ once more,” wrote. Joel Kurz, pastor of The Garden Community who previously served as a youth pastor at Greensboro Church.
Harding and her husband, Charles, have been married 37 years and have five children and nine grandchildren. The couple enjoys travelling and volunteering in Native American Indian missions schools.
The book is available from www.paracletepress.com; http://www.hiswaystores.com or http://www.amazon.com.