RHYTHMS | PRAYER, PRACTICE, PLACE
Vol 3. Issue 25
Friends,
This issue looks ahead to the arrival of the holiday season. It includes a Prayer of Holiday Temptations, the Practice of Christmas Cards, and Hammond’s Candies as a sacred Place.
Our hope is that these simple rhythms invite you to be more prepared to be present to God, yourself, and your neighbors in the holiday season.
All blessings.
Jared Mackey
P.S. Read our Year End Report to see our work in 2025 and the goals we are inviting you to help us reach in 2026.
PRAYER | MOVING SLOWLY
By Jared Mackey
Father in Heaven,
As the holidays approach
Both wonder-filled anticipation
And worry-full apprehension
Are held in my heart, my mind, and my body.
Grant me the strength of heart to notice and name
The unholy holiday temptations
That pull my heart from being present
To You, myself, and my neighbor.
May I resist the temptation to isolation
To protect myself from disappointments and doubts.
Grant me stability in my soul
To not insulate from others during this season,
But trust your Presence to hover over every occasion
With peace beyond my own understanding.
May I defy the constant temptation to comparison
To measure my worth with the amount of activity.
Grant me security in my identity
To not keep a scorecard during this season,
But instead immerse myself fully in each moment
As an invitation to encounter joy with You.
May I oppose faithfully the temptation of accumulation
To allow my home and my hospitality to be defined by possessions.
Grant me the groundedness of contentedness
To see through the lies of envy and greed
And instead choose gratitude for all You have given.
Thank You Jesus for being near us on every occasion.
You are no stranger to temptation.
Guide us and guard us through every moment
Of great joy and deep sorrow in this season.
May our trust in Your mercy and kindness
Grow deeper from both engaging in celebration
And confronting temptation.
Amen.
PRACTICE | PUZZLE FOR ADVENT
By Jared Mackey
Practice
Make a List. Allow creating a list of names of individuals and families to send a Christmas card to be a practice of gratitude for relational connections.
Make the Investment. Embrace the time to create, address, and mail Christmas cards as a tangible act of care.
Mail with Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. Hold a posture that a simple note or beautifully designed card can bring hope, peace, joy, and love this holiday season.
“I’ve always felt there is something sacred in a piece of paper that travels the earth from hand to hand, head to head, heart to heart.”
For much of the year, our mailboxes receive little beyond bulk mail circulations and unwanted financial applications. But each December, there is the possibility of the arrival of a Christmas card, a small artifact of attention to relational connection. In an increasingly digital reality, sending Christmas cards to friends, family, and neighbors is a countercultural practice of paper and pace.
The custom of sending Christmas cards began in Victorian England in 1843, the same year Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. Sir Henry Cole, a British civil servant, commissioned an artist to design an illustrated card with, “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.” The cards were sold for one shilling each. Christmas cards became a meaningful method of connection in years when family and friends were separated by wartime or migration. Christmas cards carried with them a sense of home, belonging, and care. The holiday tradition has shifted with printing technology to include portraits and creative designs that provide a way to stay up-to-date with friends, family, and neighbors year after year. In our current moment of instant digital media, sending a Christmas card is a practice that may feel outdated; it requires an investment of time to create and an increasing financial investment to mail. Yet, the investment can add to the value of this treasured holiday tradition.
Sending Christmas cards has become an important practice for our home during the holidays, as it is a physical reminder each year of those we love and are loved by. Each year, we revisit a list of names to send a card. The hope is to send both a holiday greeting and blessing, while sharing a few glimpses into our life from the past year. We send Christmas cards to families we have not seen in years, we send them to people we see every week, and we walk some cards across the street to our neighbors. Each is a gesture of sharing our lives and extending a holiday greeting and blessing of goodwill.
The practice of sending Christmas cards endures even in our current reality, where e-mail and messages can be sent instantly. It may be a practice made even more meaningful because of how much of our life is now digital and disposable. Sending a Christmas card is an embodied practice, a way of communicating relational significance that requires effort. Whether a handwritten note, a family photo, or a simple blessing of hope and peace, the Christmas card reminds us in this holiday season that we are seen, known, and loved.
PLACE | PRE FIXE MENU
By Chad Holladay
“There are few things on earth can craft a sweet smile like old-time candy…stretching smiles from ear-to-ear on the young and old.”
Hammond's Candies is a sacred place. There are few things on earth that can craft a sweet smile like old-time candy, and for over a century, Hammond’s Candies has been a cherished part of holiday celebrations, stretching smiles from ear-to-ear on the young and old. From peppermint candy canes on Christmas trees to giant lollipops on a summer afternoon, their confections evoke sweet memories of festive gatherings and family traditions.
A young Carl Hammond traded in dreams of sugar plums for a candy-making apprenticeship in 1913, pausing only to serve in the U.S. Army during WWI. By 1920, Carl returned, finished his apprenticeship, and transformed his sugary dreams into reality when he opened Hammond’s Candy Company in Denver on Platte River Street. Here, he launched his first original candy, “Carl’s Piggy Back,” a chocolate and coconut covered delight. Hammond’s survived the Great Depression by embodying Carl’s slogan, “Nothing is more important than quality.”
By 1945, Carl added his son, Tom, and his wife, June, to the family business. Tom took over the business in 1966 and expanded factory operations, accelerating sales and opportunities. Then, in 1995, Williams-Sonoma featured Hammond’s hand-pulled lollipops, chocolate-covered toffee, and peppermint pillows, launching the humble candy company into international fame. The Hammond family sold the company, and growth has skyrocketed, yet it still maintains the feel of a family business.
Hammond’s Candies currently employs over 200 people, creates 5,000 lbs. of mouth-watering candy per day, and enchants over 100,000 visitors every year on their factory tours. The original hand-crafted recipes remain the same, with no two pieces ever being identical. Their most popular candy? The unpretentious red and white striped, peppermint candy cane. This holiday icon has adorned countless Christmas trees and sweetened celebrations since the factory’s nativity.
My wife, son, and I enjoyed the free tour of Hammond's Candies Factory and learned why this candy factory remains special. We discovered Hammond’s is the largest and oldest handmade candy company in America. Many of the hand-cranked machines used today are original to the factory and are no longer manufactured, making maintenance a bit sticky. Becoming a candy “chef” at Hammond’s is no simple feat: it requires a rigorous apprenticeship lasting anywhere from 6 months to 5 years, depending on the confection. Hammond’s has passed down the art of candy making to four generations of Coloradoans.
My favorite sweet secret from the tour was the hard candy rejects. Regardless of the flavor or color, they can be redeemed and fulfill their candymaker’s purpose. These misfits are tossed back into the 1920s era copper kettles with a new batch, cooked to 330° where any past imperfections are absolved, and are resurrected to new life! After our mouth-watering tour, we entered the candy store where we ogled dozens of candy types of all shapes and colors. We walked away with a candy cache and smiles as wide as the candy canes we saw being pulled that day.
Hammond’s is not just a candy factory—it’s a Mile High treasure, a living testimony to the art of old-time, hand-crafted confections. It is a glimpse of the Kingdom, igniting within our shared humanity something celebratory and magical. Hammond's Candies is a sacred place.
Chad Holladay is a renegade pastor whose parish is wherever he finds himself. He loves his family of 5, listening to and talking music with whoever is interested, and turning his yard into a nature preserve for our native wildlife.
Tour tip: If you decide to take the free tour, plan for early morning Monday-Thursday for the best opportunity to see the factory in its full operational glory. You can schedule a tour at hammondscandies.com.
RESOURCES | ADVENT
SEASONS | RESOURCES
This holiday season, consider giving a Sacred Place Guidebook as a gift to encourage a more deeply rooted faith. The guidebook is an anthology of prayers, practices, and places to help cultivate love for our neighbors and neighborhoods.
The design resembles a travel guidebook printed to provide an introduction and important information about a particular place. The place this guidebook introduces us to is the place we already call home.
More rhythms to root your faith in place.
Sacred Place provides a beautiful bi-weekly publication to share the rhythms of a Prayer, Practice, and Place as simple ways to help cultivate love for our neighbors and neighborhoods.
