It seems quite natural that animals play a big part in the Christmas celebration. After all, Jesus was born in a stable surrounded by animals. And Santa has those magical reindeer at his beck and call.As a young girl, growing up on the farm I loved the Legend of the Animals. According to the legend, at midnight on Christmas Eve, all the animals on the farm would be given the gift of speech for one hour.
What an enchanting story! I wanted to believe this one with all my heart.
I wanted to be able to talk to the baby calves. What would they say to me? What would they say to each other? Would the barn cats talk to me?
In my young imagination, I fantasized about them singing Christmas carols and talking about the Baby Jesus.
My parents were always “early to bed early to rise” so one year I had a plan to sneak out on Christmas Eve and share this wonderful event. Unfortunately I had never been awake past 8:00 PM .When my parents tucked me in on Christmas Eve, I was soon fast asleep and missed it all. This only added to the mystery….the unknown element involved made it all seem possible to me. I can remember as a young adult still wanting to believe. I can remember when my own young children were asleep in their beds on Christmas Eve. I could sneak out now and see for myself.
Something held me back…the unknown. I didn’t really want to be disappointed if it was just a legend. I wanted to continue the magic.
When The Animals Talk
By Rusty Calhoun
The story is told about the night
The Babe was born in the stable.
The animals gathered round the child
Admiring Him in the cradle.Because they worshiped that little Babe,
And sang their praises to Him
God has granted them one night a year
They can talk with the seraphim.Late at night, on Christmas Eve
In every stable and barn,
The critters gather in Jesus’ Name
Warm and safe from harm.At the stroke of midnight, a miracle!
Lowing and braying takes form
As words of love and praise come forth
And the creatures voices lovely, sweet, and comforting sounds
As they utter worshipful words
No one’s left out, there are sheep and elk
Coyotes, cougars and birds.The angels sing and play their lutes,
The drummer boy thumps his drum.
The horses nicker an “Agnus Dei”
And all of the animals come.To lend their voices in adoration
At the birth of the blessed child
And teach us gentle lessons
In tones both sweet and mild
The Babe was born in the stable.
The animals gathered round the child
Admiring Him in the cradle.Because they worshiped that little Babe,
And sang their praises to Him
God has granted them one night a year
They can talk with the seraphim.Late at night, on Christmas Eve
In every stable and barn,
The critters gather in Jesus’ Name
Warm and safe from harm.At the stroke of midnight, a miracle!
Lowing and braying takes form
As words of love and praise come forth
And the creatures voices lovely, sweet, and comforting sounds
As they utter worshipful words
No one’s left out, there are sheep and elk
Coyotes, cougars and birds.The angels sing and play their lutes,
The drummer boy thumps his drum.
The horses nicker an “Agnus Dei”
And all of the animals come.To lend their voices in adoration
At the birth of the blessed child
And teach us gentle lessons
In tones both sweet and mild
“O holy Night”, the mother ewe bleats
As she snuggles her little lamb,
While benediction is offered up
By a majestic curly horned ram.Voices ring out from the top of the lofts,
Across the meadows and plains,
A chorus of joyful, Heavenly notes.
The Christ Child’s Glory proclaimed.
While benediction is offered up
By a majestic curly horned ram.Voices ring out from the top of the lofts,
Across the meadows and plains,
A chorus of joyful, Heavenly notes.
The Christ Child’s Glory proclaimed.
May all your magical beliefs at Christmastime bring you joy and wonder….
Retired Ruth 
Reblogged this on Retired Ruth .
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We may not want to know what the pigs think of us. We make them live in the dirtiest part of the house, give them our trash to eat, not enforce any type of exercise regimen, and then turn around and eat them! And good lord they are delicious.
Seriously great post and you brought back some nice memories.
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Well I never thought of that… I guess I really don’t want to know what they might say!
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Leave it to me to put a pessimistic twist on the fine institute of bacon.
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Nice to find your post at the end of a lovely day. Merry Christmas.
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Merry Christmas to you and your family, Ruth–and may God bless your New Year with His abundant grace and favor–love, Caddo
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I hadn’t heard this story before – it’s wonderful. I, too, am an animal lover and this struck a deep cord in me. Thanks for sharing.
Margo
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This is so lovely, Ruth!! I was not familiar with the legend–but I’m all about believing in magical, miraculous, wonderfully impossible things!! ‘Tis the Season to Believe. How’s the knee feeling?? God bless you Big–love, sis Caddo
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Thank you! Knee continues to improve… next week is my 6 week checkup already! Thanks for asking. God Bless YOU! (He’s already blessed us both)
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One Christmas I was about 5 and it was the days when we had sack on our bedposts with toys in them, mum and dad put us to bed as usual and said not to disturb Santa on his deliveries. But late in the night me and my older woke, and saw a sack of toys on our bedpost, We both crept out of bed and started being nosy, pulling pressies out and shaking them and being really excited. But we were not as quiet as we thought, when mother walked in and pretended to angry. she let us open a pressie of our choice, and made us promise to wait for the morning for the rest. We did, and my toy I opened was a pop gun with corks and a tin soldier target on a wire, if you hit them with your cork gun they spun around. This kept us quiet and when mum came in to us in the morning we were both huddled on the floor asleep..
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What a wonderful story… asleep on the floor! A nice memory, just in time for your mom’s birthday.
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I’ve never heard this story before – it’s delightful!
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Annabelle’s Wish comes to mind…a lovely little story about a calf that grew up with a young boy and wanted to fly…but, also had the gift of talk…My Grandkids and I watched it over and over…
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I love this because I am such an animal person. Yup, I not only talk to my cats, but they talk back to me through my own voice. My favorite Christmas story growing up (I didn’t know this one) was The Littlest Angel.
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Thanks for the memory of The Littlest Angel… that was one I had forgotten about. I loved it too!
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This is such a magical little idea. I’m an animal lover so naturally I believe it’s true! It just heightens the sense of the miracle. Sweet.
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