But amidst all the hustle and bustle and fairytale feelings, it can be easy for me, even as an adult, to lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas.
Last year Matt and I spent a lot of time talking about ways that we can make sure that even though all this other stuff is fun, Christ remains the focus in our home. Here's a few Christmas traditions we came up with or copied off of others:
The day after Thanksgiving gift- We like to decorate and get all of our Christmas stuff out the day after Thanksgiving. That's when Christmas officially starts for us. One thing we decided to do is to give a collective gift to our children on that day that focuses on Christ and that they can enjoy the whole season and help them focus on him. Ideas include: books and videos about his birth, ornaments (I just saw a super cool set at Hobby Lobby today that could be used to decorate a tree in their room... maybe next year?:)), toys (We really like the Fisher-Price Little People Nativity Playset
, advent calendars, puzzles, activities, etc. Each year that stuff comes back out and you add something else to it and the idea is that they'll be surrounded with fun things that celebrate Christ and will remind them of the meaning of Christmas when they see and play with them. Three Gifts- Several people have given us the idea of giving 3 gifts to each child to represent the 3 gifts the wise men gave to Jesus. Nothing spiritual about it, just another reminder. This year with Isaac, we got him some "smaller" gifts (puzzles, videos and board games). Because none of them were super expensive and our budget this year allowed it, we got him several of each and we're wrapping them as "themed" gifts. Silas is getting 3 "bigger" items.
Santa- How can you not love that big, jolly guy? We struggled with how to allow Santa Claus to be a part of our holiday season without him stealing the show. We finally decided on stockings. We got these super cute stockings last year with Santa on them and each year on Christmas morning they will find it stuffed full of fun things from him. We really don't want to be Scrooges, but we do want to be Christ centered. Everyone has their opinions on this, but this is what we've decided for our family and I'm super excited about it. Isaac's getting some Thomas trains in his this year and I'm pretty sure he'll be more excited about those than anything else he gets. Silas, well, he's getting a rubber ducky and some socks. :)
Breakfast- This year we'd like to implement a fun breakfast tradition. To minimize stress on an already crazy morning/week, I think we're going to do cinnamon rolls out of a can. When it's time to eat we'll light a candle and sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. Quick and fun and one more way to bring it back around to the reason we're celebrating.
Reading the Christmas story- Of course we'll be reading the story of Jesus' birth a lot over the next month, but when I was growing up, we always read the story out of Luke before we opened presents as a family. I like that idea and think we'll continue it with our family, though we may use a more toddler/baby friendly version for the next couple of years.
Theme days- I'll be doing 1 or 2 themed Christmas days with Isaac to reinforce what he's been learning about the birth of Christ.
So that's how we're going to try and stay focused this year and how we hope to pass down to our children the amazing Gift that was given to us by our Father at Christmas time. What are some of your traditions that help you celebrate Jesus? Does anyone have any good traditions that they have between them and their spouse? I'm all about getting some more good ideas and tweaking or changing or adding to what we already have!
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Des, you are doing such a great job being proactive in teaching your boys and starting such cool traditions. Love the gift after Thanksgiving so they can have something throughout the season to help them focus on Jesus. I love stockings idea too - a small way to enjoy a fun cultural tradition of santa while keeping the real focus on Jesus through the breakfast happy birthday song. I can't believe how you can accomplish so much! You are a super mom!
ReplyDeleteHave you heard of the Jesse Tree? We started that as a Christmas tradition a couple years ago and my husband and I really like it. The kids like getting to put the ornaments on the tree. :) Here's a link about what the Jesse tree is: http://simplemom.net/jesse-tree/ .
ReplyDeleteVery cool, Kinda Crunchy Kate! I have heard of the Jesse tree, but hadn't actually looked into it much. I'll definitely be adding it to my list of things to do! :)
ReplyDeleteWhen my son was younger I made a little advent calendar with stepping stones to the manger. Every day in December, I would let my son attach a symbol I had drawn on one of the steps and I would tell him a story from the Bible.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing was to have a little basket on a table. Every time my son did a good deed, he would put a strip of paper inside the basket. When Christmas day came, we would put Jesus on the basket lined with paper strips of good deeds. Patsy from
HeARTworks
One thing that has helped us keep the focus of the gospel during advent, is to periodically ask this little refrain: (Our kids are 5,3, and 1)
ReplyDeleteParent: Who is a sinner?
Everyone: "I am"/"You are"/"We are!"
Parent: What do we need?
Kids: A Savior!
Parent: So why do we celebrate Christmas?
Kids: Because that's when Jesus, our Savior, was born!
It's amazing how those simple phrases come to have ever deeper meaning throughout the season, even at family gatherings where sin comes to the surface quite easily! :) The most humorous twist on this last year was one time when our then 2-year-old looked up in response to, "SO what do we need?" and declared with a grin, "Ice Cream!" :)
The 3 gifts is great. A lot of cultures celebrate 3 Kings Day on January 6 and it is a religious observation.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing all these great ideas. I've been looking for ways to help my 4-year-old focus on something other than the Toys'R Us catalog.
Those are great ideas. We used to do several of them when our children were younger and they do make a difference! I pray you have a blessed Christmas with your sweet family. You're off to a wonderful, Jesus-centered start.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have some nice traditions going... I'd like to implement Ann's sons advent candle holder as well...
ReplyDeleteThese are all wonderful ideas! I love the post-Thanksgiving gift! Thanks for linking up to A Christ-Centered Christmas!
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas! Thanks for linking up at A Christ-Centered Christmas!
ReplyDeleteLove this post. Thanks for writing it. I just "discovered" ya'lls blog and it is fantastic! I haven't stumbled upon a lot of Christ-centered parent/kid blogs, so I"m excited to explore around this afternoon. :)
ReplyDeleteI too have been adding new traditions each year that keep us focused on Christ in Christmas. Here are a few:
ReplyDelete1. topping the tree with a crown of thorns (you can find these online or make one out of pipe cleaners) reminding us that Jesus came not to be a baby but to be our savior.
2. we have a nativity advent where each day we add a new character or piece of scenery as we walk through the birth of Jesus over 25 days. You could probably use any child friendly nativity set and write your own 25 activities, we just happened to have a set that was designed as an advent "calendar". (Family Fun magazine has a make-your-own nativity craft that you could also do and make one character/scenery piece each day) Our baby Jesus is not added in this nativity set until Christmas morning. I bought a pack of foam stars from a craft store and made a trail on the floor from the kids' bedroom doors to the nativity advent scene while they were sleeping Christmas Eve. Christmas morning we all follow the stars (wise men reference here-though the wise men did not actually come to baby Jesus in the manger but saw Jesus when he was closer to age 2-we make sure to point out this discrepancy between what the Bible actually says and the popular culture idea-the Bible also does not give a number of wise men-that is also popular culture and not scripture)...so we all follow the stars to the manger, add Jesus and sing Happy Birthday.
3. make a paper tree to keep in open view. get a supply of colored garage sale dot stickers, blank and have kids add one to the tree every time they are doing something that could be a gift to Jesus (using kind words, giving in good deeds, praying for another, showing love in or out of the family, etc.) By Christmas it should be full of "gifts" to Jesus.
4. I have collected nativity stories over the years. I wrap them up in dollar store paper and set them in a box. Each night in December we open one and read a nativity story as a family as the goodnight story. A different child each night gets to be the chooser and opener. This feels like opening presents and gets some of that energy out, but keeps us focused on Christ. A story my kids absolutely love is Mortimer's Christmas Manger. Then the opened books are left out to enjoy the rest of the month. You can probably score some good books from your library if you order them in time. Our library lets us keep books for 3 weeks.
We don't do Santa at all. We talk about Santa and his ways of giving being Christlike-at least the St.Nicholas Santa. We've also explained that there are "fun" make-believe Santa stories like the north pole, reindeer, elves, etc. but don't dwell on them. Those Santa stories are not part of our nightly read alouds. We do stockings as a nod to St. Nicholas and the original story, but the kids know we fill them. Our families thought our kids would feel deprived, but alas that is not so. They are growing up with a healthy understanding of our faith less crowded by culture.
I love all of your ideas:) I tried really hard last year to "reshape" our Christmas traditions to only Christ centered activites...since that IS what it is all about;) I had a brand new 3 year old, 1 1/2 yr old, and a newborn last year so everything we did had to be SIMPLE and to the point.
ReplyDeleteOne thing they loved- we made a paper chain and hung it for decoration somewhere in the house. Each day we could take one off (counting down to Christmas day) and we would choose someone or something to pray about. We would write the name of the person on the chain "link". I THOUGHT about mailing those people their link and telling them we prayed for them...but we didn't get to it last year. Maybe this year. Another thought would be to pray for or find a way to bless someone by picking a christmas card (with a picture...that helps the littlest ones) from your stack.
Here is a link to our blog where I tried to document our activites last year:
http://tessaandbradhobbs.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-prep-and-advent-at-our-house.html
I just found you from Money Saving Mom, and I had to say thanks for the Santa idea. My oldest just turned two, so my husband and I have been struggling with how much (if at all) to include Santa in our Christmas celebrations. Like you, we want our Christmas to be focused on Jesus, and we also don't like the idea of perpetuating a belief in Santa that our kids will one day learn is a lie. The idea of stockings is a great way to acknowledge Santa while still keeping the focus where it belongs. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas!
ReplyDelete