Christmas in Narnia

Hello everyone! Thanksgiving is over, and Christmas is coming up fast! I decided to change the header of my blog to something Chrismassy (which I made), and I changed the color scheme as well. If you're interested, here's a post of all of my former blog headers.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a very Christmassy book. Maybe it's because the first three times you see Narnia it is covered in beautiful wintery snow. Or maybe because C.S. Lewis actually added a character called "Father Christmas." Why do you think he did that? I think it's fascinating. He incorporated lots of mythical creatures from ancient folklore into Narnia, such as fawns and dryads and seapeople. But he also added a few characters that we recognize, like Bacchus (in Prince Caspian), and Father Christmas in LWW, who has continued to permeate our culture to this day. Nowadays, Santa Claus displays are everywhere at Christmastime; he is on TV; he meets kids at malls; and most every kid, at one point or another, if not believes in him, wishes he was real. The Pevensies get to actually meet Father Christmas in person (even if it is in another world) and receive gifts from him! In this scene in the movie, Lucy, the youngest sibling and the one with the most faith, turns to her older sister and says, "Told you he was real." I appreciate that Father Christmas in the movie points to Aslan as the true king, saying, "Long live Aslan!" before driving off in his sleigh.

When asked by a young fan what Aslan's "other name" was, C.S. Lewis included Christmas in his explanation:

"As to Aslan's other name, well I want you to guess. Has there never been anyone in this world who (1.) Arrived at the same time as Father Christmas. (2.) Said that he was the Son of the Great Emperor. (3.) Gave himself up for someone else's fault to be jeered at and killed by wicked people. (4.) Came to life again. (5.) Is sometimes spoken of as a Lamb (see the end of the Dawn Treader). Don't you really know His name in this world?"

That's right, Christmas is also when Jesus arrived on our Earth! And he is way more exciting than Father Christmas! Imagine you wanted and wanted to believe that God was real; then, at Christmas, he gives us the most precious gift he could ever give: his own Son. Jesus, who is God, came to our world as a human! He actually set foot on this Earth! He was God, born as a baby in Bethlehem. I can picture one little shepherd at the stable whispering to a buddy, "Told you He was real."

In The Last Battle, Lucy (Narnia's example of faith) says,

"Yes," said Queen Lucy. "In our world, too, a Stable once held something inside it that was bigger than our whole world."

Once again, an acknowledgment of Christmas and Christianity and Christ in the Chronicles. Yay, C.S. Lewis!!

Maybe you should re-read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe this December! Another great story is Luke 1 and 2, the story of the first Christmas. (And the whole Bible, of course! :)) You can conveniently read Luke online here.

And just for fun... Narnia Christmas Gift Ideas:

Narnia Fans Apparel

Fox Shop Official Merchandise

Narnia gifts from Zazzle

Narnia gifts from Cafepress

Narnia replicas and toys on Amazon

Wardrobe Necklace

Narnia Radio Theatre

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie

Sadness and Blessings

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to share this video that I made about a month ago when there were some sad things effecting my life, especially something one of my friends was going through. I edited the video while thinking of the situation. It's the first time I've done one based on real life.

Anyway, today something sad has come up again, and, strangely enough, today RJ (who creates Narnia graphics, which I did a post about here) made a Narnia graphic inspired by my video.

I just felt so blessed, first because she would make a graphic based on my video, but secondly because she did it today, of all days. That's one way God blesses people, I guess. :)

This led to more views and a lovely comment from one of my YouTube friends on my video today. Thank you so much! I really feel blessed by God because I have blessed other people with this video. I'm amazed that it could bless so many different people, when I just made it because of something one friend was going through. That may be why it was so powerful. It's called, "King Caspian - Storm." The music is by Lifehouse.

Sorry it's a short post. Still not much Narnia news in the world today... :p Well, there was a rumor that Magician's Nephew was in pre-production and Silver Chair was in the script-writing phase, which means they're still a long way away from the screen, but it hasn't been officially denied or affirmed.... Here's a NarniaFans post saying where we're at now, which is uncertainty. :/ I want to know what happened to the funding that Perry Moore got for Magician's Nephew and how that plays into all this.

Reasons for Neglect, and making up for it!!

Hello All!
It's almost the end of August, so I thought I'd post something. :) When I started this blog, it was mostly to let my excitement about Narnia out! Especially right around the release of Dawn Treader! :) I also wanted to post things like Character profiles and devotionals and quotes and things. I would love to get to these soon, so stay tuned!

Reasons for my neglect:

1. There hasn't been much Narnia news at all! Here's one of my Aslan's Country friends' interpretation of the situation:



We are stuck at where we were months ago... Waiting for Fox and Walden (or someone else) to decide to do another film! The last thing we heard was they wanted to do Magician's Nephew next. At this point, I don't care so much which one they do next, I just want another one! Actually I want four more!!!! :D

NarniaWeb and YouTube's Glumpuddle posted an analysis on the situation and possible routes the franchise could take. I thought it was really interesting, so I'm posting it here:



2. I'm producing a movie! Yep, you heard me. We've made two smaller-scale films before with friends: "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" in 2006 and "The Silver Chair" in 2008. (I can't believe I haven't posted on this blog about them yet!) Both were so much fun! Over the years, we've learned more techniques through short film projects and a film club our church hosted. Now, with the help of many adults and teens from our area, I am producing, "First Impressions," which is based on Pride and Prejudice. This is the other blog on my profile. (Check it out here.)

3. It's summer!!! And this means I'm busy. :) I have managed to dig up a few interesting articles and sites for you though.

First, Did you know you can download the Narnia font?!?! I just found out! It's the one they use for the official movie logo. Click here to check it out! I made the image below with the Narnia font. :)


Second, a Narnia Cookbook is coming out!! The writer of the "Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook" is now writing a Narnia version. Here is the article where she mentions her next book, but I saw it first on Facebook. Can't wait to see what's in it! :)


Third, I'm having fun hosting a contest on YouTube! You make a rules video, then people post their videos as video responses to your contest video, then you get to watch them all and decide who passes to the next round! It's pretty fun. I'm posting my most recent video below. (I've also been neglecting editing because of the film.... :/) You can always find my "Narnia Music Vids" on the sidebar of this blog. :)



Fourth, my sister found this cool site called "Wordle" which you can use to make pictures with words. Just click "Create" up at the top, then put in your blog url! You can customize the words, layout, and colors. :) Below is one I made by pasting in my blog's url. Try it! It's amazing! :)


Last, and certainly most exciting, I GOT TO GO TO THE NARNIA EXHIBITION IN PORTLAND!!!!!!! Yes. I know. It deserves its own post! :) I'll make a post for it when I upload our Narnia Nerds of the Northwest video that Hannah and I took while we were there. For now, let me recap the most exciting parts for me:

1. Getting to go there with the Dokupils was AWESOMENESS. It was so fun to be with my fellow Narnia freak, so we could oooh and aaah together! :)
   
2. Being allowed (after many phonecalls and talking to staff) to take pictures and video inside the exhibit!! Matthew (Aslan's Country boss) called Walden to get permission because we were going to write a report on our site. The OMSI people finally let us, and we got press passes. :)
3. Getting to see the ACTUAL props from the films!!! When we first walked in, we saw Edmund's flashlight from "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader." Skandar has touched it. I know that sounds weird. We're not weird Skandarfans, it's just awesome to think that that's the one they used in the films! After more costume displays, we spotted The Book of Incantations. Yup. The actual one!! We plopped down in front of that for about five minutes. :) Other original items: The White Witch's dress and crown, Susan's coronation crown, and the door and door frame from Tumnus' house!
4. Overall, it was just so amazing to get to go there. I would have been very sad if I couldn't have gone. If you have a chance to visit, I definitely recommend it. :)
   

You can read our report on Aslan's Country here. Hannah did an awesome job writing it, and Matthew made an amazing slideshow! :) Enjoy! And more coming soon!