By Anne Marie Amacher
The Catholic Messenger
Fifth-grader Noah Kipp of Notre Dame Catholic School in Burlington is the winner of The Catholic Messenger Christmas Card Contest for 2023. He was one of 422 students in grades kindergarten through six from schools and parishes throughout the Diocese of Davenport who submitted entries this year.
Noah had a big smile on his face during a Zoom videoconference last week when he learned the good news. The contest’s judges (Catholic Messenger staff) appreciated Noah’s thoughtful, colored-pencil depiction of the crèche, with Christ at the center, the Star of Bethlehem shining brightly through a window and a lamb gazing at the baby in the manger.
Noah said he wanted to keep his portrayal of the scene simple, without too many elements to take away from the celebration of the birth of Christ. He chose colored pencils for his medium because he finds them easiest to blend. “I use colored pencils a lot. They are really good.”
His artwork contains some other meaningful elements: a batch of wheat to symbolize what would be used “to make the bread” that Jesus would share with his disciples later in his ministry, Noah said. A jug symbolizes Jesus’s first miracle of changing water to wine at the wedding feast in Cana.
Noah has participated in the Messenger’s Christmas Card Contest in previous years and competes in other art competitions as well. This year he also won an award for a Fire Prevention Week poster he created.
Thank you to all 422 participants in this year’s Catholic Messenger Christmas Card contest. The Messenger appreciates your artwork, some of which we are able to include inside this week’s issue on Pages 6 and 7.
Please click on the images below to see a bigger one.
