Anyhow, the story I heard goes something like this:

Now, you remember how Joseph and Mary were riding a little donkey right into Bethlehem. The way I've been told, the donkey was blind as a bat - I mean, he couldn't see anything! Joseph knew that donkey was blind, but since that land over there was flat and sandy, and his donkey had never tripped once, as long as Joseph was there to lead him, that ol' donkey didn't have any problems at all.

They got into Bethlehem, and you know how they ended up in that barn. And Mary eventually gave birth to the baby Jesus.

Well, right after baby Jesus was born, the angels appeared in the sky, singing what would later become known as the first Christmas carols.

There was a group of shepherds herding their sheep out on the side of the hills. The angels were singing to the shepherds - just regular country people out working, tending their sheep in their fields. Uh-huh, I bet they were surprised and maybe a little scared. I know I would be.

Well, the angels called out, "Hey, it's all right, don't be afraid." They told the shepherds about how baby Jesus, the Christ child, was born in a barn in a little town called Bethlehem. The barn was in a cave. Now some have said it was a building, but I was told it was a cave. Well, at least the back part of the barn was in a cave. The front part of the barn had been built out of mud, straw and wood. The angels said if the shepherds wanted to go and visit the Christ child, they could find him under the new star they had set up in the sky to help people find Bethlehem and the barn.



The next morning, bright and early, Sylvester, the chief of all the shepherds, called his young son, Frederick. "Freddie," he said, "Your uncles and aunts and I are going into Bethlehem to see the new baby the angels were singing about last night. Would you like to go?"

Would Frederick like to go? He was nine years old and had never been to town! Of course, he wanted to go! Not only would he get to go to town for the first time, but he'd be able to see the Christ child, too! Frederick was excited!

Let me tell you something about Frederick. When he was a tiny baby, his Grandma had taken some sheep's wool and had made him a baby lamb doll. As long as Frederick could remember, he had slept with that baby lamb doll and had eaten his meals with that baby lamb doll. He even carried the doll with him everywhere he went. He loved that baby lamb doll, and had named her "Willie."

But now there was a problem. You see, now that Frederick was nine years old, the older children had been teasing him about carrying a doll all the time. Recently, he had been hiding Willie under his shepherd's clothes. Frederick decided that if he were old enough to go to town and see baby Jesus, he was old enough to leave his lamb doll home. He hugged Willie and hid her under his bed covers.

Frederick stood up straight, puffed out his chest, put on his new shepherd's cloak and strutted out the cabin door with his daddy and his family heading for Bethlehem. They had not gone down the road a hundred yards when he stopped and said, "Daddy I left something at home I need. I'm going to run back and fetch it, but I'll catch up with you."

Well, you can guess what he went back for. He picked up Willie and hid that baby lamb doll under his cloak and ran to catch up with his mommy and daddy and kinfolk. He quit strutting too and just trod along quietly with the grown ups.