It's December and time for all the children in the family to be in "The Christmas Play." So you juggle your time, sew costumes, listen to the children practice their lines and songs and finally the big moment arrives. Your little shepherd's shoes are untied and he trips and falls while going toward the manger and your little angels "halo" slips down over one eye and one of her "wings" seems to have disappeared. The age old carols are sung just a bit off-key, but as you sit there you know that it's the best Christmas Play you have ever seen!

Last Christmas the three youngest children in our family were all in the same Christmas Play on the same night! What a family gathering that was! The children were fantastic and it was the most wonderful Christmas play ever!

When you see the tall Aspens in all their glory .. when you see their leaves all a-tremble, you'll remember this story and know why they shiver and shake and quiver.

LONG, long ago, so the legend says, when Joseph and Mary and the Holy Babe fled out of Bethlehem into Egypt, they passed through the green wildwood. And flowers and trees and plants bent their heads in reverence. But the proud aspen held its head high and refused even to look at the Holy Babe. In vain the birds sang in the aspen's branches, entreating it to gaze for one moment at the wonderful One; the proud tree still held its head erect in scorn.

Then outspake Mary, his mother. "O aspen tree," she said, "why do you not gaze on the Holy Child? Why do you not bow your head? A star arose at his birth, angels sang his first lullaby, kings and shepherds came to the brightness of his rising; why, then, O aspen, do you refuse to honor your Lord and mine?"

But the aspen could not answer. A strange shivering passed through its stem and along its boughs, which set its leaves a-quivering. It trembled before the Holy Babe.

And so from age to age, even unto this day, the proud aspen shakes and shivers.

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