Hey everybody, it’s week three of free Christmas song downloads (Check out the first and second week’s giveaways!) and this week’s is a fun one! Check out my version of “Holly Jolly Christmas” below, download it here for free, share it with friends, and do what the title says!
Free download, click here!
As Christmas songs go, Holly Jolly Christmas might be one of the sillier ones, but I love it! Burl Ives is the man and his version from the Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer soundtrack is just great. Hope you enjoy my kind of folksy re-imagining!
Onto our second item of business, I’m calling attention to one Charity each week (The first week I talked about Compassion International and the second week was focused on Child’s Play) and this week I’d like to talk about Angel Tree (http://www.angeltree.org). This is a charity with something of a unique mission, to provide gifts to the children of prison inmates.
Now there’s a lot of things we could debate about prison and prisoners and the system in general, but I don’t think anyone would say that just because someone’s in prison their children deserve to suffer. Here’s a testimony from one of the families who benefited from this charity in the past. This explains better than I can what Angel Tree is all about.
From the website – “Alcoholism. Drug abuse. Divorce. Homelessness. Imprisonment. Little Forrest has witnessed them all. With his father in prison and his mom lost in a haze of drug abuse, Forrest’s maternal grandparents got custody of him when he was just two years old.
“He was like a wild animal,” his grandmother Bonnie says. Unable to articulate his hurt and frustration, he would hit, kick, bite, head butt, and throw things. One day at a time, “Nanna BB” and “Pappy” brought peace and stability to Forrest’s world. But as Christmas neared, Bonnie began to worry. If Forrest’s mom didn’t visit, or he didn’t get phone calls from his dad, Forrest’s behavior would often regress.
“We got a call that Forrest’s dad was sending Christmas gifts through Angel Tree,” Bonnie says. “It was just so nice to have people supporting us. Prayer is a powerful thing.”
At such a critical time in Forrest’s journey, Angel Tree connected him with his daddy — helping to make sure that Forrest stayed on a path toward healing and stability. Today, Forrest’s mother is working to turn her life around and restore her relationship with her son. Forrest’s dad will be released from prison soon. He, too, has vowed to turn his life around and be a faithful father.”
This, to me, is a powerful charity that can use everyone’s help whether it’s donating money, gifts, time, or spreading the word to your circle of friends about Angel Tree (http://www.angeltree.org/) and what they do. So consider them this Holiday season, thanks for reading!
I hope you liked the song, don’t forget to download it for free, and tell your friends!
-loren
