This morning there were just enough snowflakes in the air to infuse the atmosphere with the magic of Christmas. Here in the South, we say it’s “spitting snow.” As you can imagine, people around my house are already getting very excited! Our Christmas traditions are well underway, the house is decorated, parties are planned, and gifts are stacking up in all kinds of hiding places.
As I’m striving to keep our Christmas Christ-centered, I’m wondering: What do you do to celebrate Christ in Christmas? I’d love for you to share your ideas for traditions, events, crafts, and foods in the comments below. If you can link to your blog or someone else’s for crafts, recipes, and other ideas, please do so. Here are some of our favorite traditions:
What are your favorite ways to keep Christ in Christmas? Please share your ideas, traditions, recipes, and crafts below.
My daughter and I started a tradition where every year we bake a cake and decorate it for Jesus’ Birthday. She loves singing Happy Birthday to Him. This year we are also hand making everything, even the wrapping paper. I want her to learn you can still have fun at Christmas time without spending so much money. I also want her to appreciate the things that come from the heart and not dwell on having the name brand or most popular item that people fight over in stores. It’s more about the quality time together. She is excited about the idea of handmade gifts and decorations.
It’s nothing mindblowing but we read the Christmas story from the Bible outloud…each person reads a little part of it. 🙂
Every year we celebrate Advent by doing activities instead of giving daily gifts. It’s a ton of fun for everyone in our family. 🙂 http://www.stacymakescents.com/advent-2011
Also, we only give three gifts to our baby girl – to mimic the three gifts the Wise Men brought to Christ. It’s helped us simplify things around here: http://www.stacymakescents.com/christmas-with-annie
This idea came from the wife of the pastor who married us, who raised three daughters, now all grown & married with children of their own. This one drawback to this tradition is that you must have a nativity scene that allows Jesus to be removed from the manger. When we first set up our nativity, Jesus does not go into the manger, because he hasn’t been born yet. My husband hides him, and on Christmas morning, before anything else, my two girls (now ages 9 & 6) must find Jesus & place Him in the manger. Obviously, the hiding places started out as very easy places to find & continue to get harder with each passing year. My husband then reads the Christmas story out of Luke, & the person who found Jesus gets the privilege of GIVING the first gift (not getting). My pastor’s wife said that it got to the point that her girls were just as excited about finding Jesus as they were about the presents. We’ve found it a wonderful way to keep Jesus at the forefront of Christmas Day.
I linked up above. We have a 25 day plan, and soon I’ll be posting some changes. I only have a few advent related posts right now, they’re at http://thatssomartha.blogspot.com/search/label/Parenting%3B%20Christmas. Thanks for having this post, I look forward to seeing other responses.