My two children are offering their favorite toys to the Baby Jesus; Valentine, the horse, and Brown Sugar, the rabbit.  As a little girl I was part of the Junior Choir at the Lutheran Church we attended.  One of the Christmas songs we sang each Christmas was “The Friendly Beasts”.  My sister and I often sang solos throughout our eight grades of elementary school when we sang this particular song.

The song goes as follows:

Jesus our brother kind and good
Was humbly born in a stable rude
And the friendly beasts around him stood.
Jesus our brother kind and good. 

I said the donkey all shaggy and brown
I carried his mother up hill and down
I carried his mother to Bethlehem town
I said the donkey all shaggy and brown.

I said the cow all white and red
I gave him my manger for his bed
I gave him my hay to pillow his head
I said the cow all white and red.

I said the sheep with curly horn
I gave him my wool for his blanket warm
He wore my coat on Christmas morn
I said the sheep with curly horn.

I said the dove from the rafters high
We cooed him to sleep my mate and I
We cooed him to sleep so he would not cry
I said the dove from rafters high.

Thus every beast by some good spell
In the stable dark was glad to tell
Of the gift he gave Emmanuel
The gift he gave Emmanuel.

This painting was selected by the Norwegian American Museum as one of their Christmas cards and the decoration is Norwegian Rose-maling.