Christmas is an amazing time of year with so many opportunities for focusing on Jesus. We had our first Christmas at home last year and these are some of the things that we did and are repeating this next year. It was a blessed Christmas focusing on Jesus.
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| Christmas Eve, waiting for baby Jesus |
Nativity:
This is our nativity but each piece gets wrapped up and put under the tree. I only have 15 different pieces, so each evening (the 15 days before Christmas) our daughter opens up a present. She is delighted with each one and our worship that night focuses on the part of the Christmas story that the object represents. As she get older we will get more in depth with the lessons.
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| Christmas morning opening up baby Jesus |
We have asked everyone in our family give our daughter one present for Christmas. We do the same. We don't want Jesus to get lost sight of in the midst of "getting." We have talked a lot this year about the way we give Jesus presents for His birthday is by giving to others. “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Matt. 25:40 Therefore we are looking for the "least of these" to help. Growing up, we adopted a family every year and brought Christmas to them, we are wanting to continue that tradition. We are also planning on visiting an elderly person with no family on Christmas day and taking them dinner. We want to focus on giving special gifts to Jesus.
Advent Wreath of sorts:
Instead of a wreath we have four candles on the mantle (hard to see in picture, will put up a better one soon). Each candle represents a different part of Christmas, we did peace, love, joy, and hope. The four Friday nights before Christmas we would light a new candle until all four were lit.
After lighting the candle, we had little cards to hang on the Christmas tree. One for each person present. On the card we wrote how we had experienced each of the four characteristics (love, joy, peace, and hope) of Christmas that year. Then we wrote how we thought God had experienced each (love, joy, peace and hope) because of our lives in the past year. Then the card was hung on the tree.
Birthday cake for Jesus:
We have a birthday cake for Jesus after Christmas dinner. My mom sent some ideas for the cake. Here is the link if you are interested.
Cards:
One fun part of Christmas is receiving Christmas cards from friends and family. At dinner each night, one can pray for the families of the cards that were received that day in the mail.
Santa:
At this point we are telling our daughter about the historical character St. Nicholas. We have also been telling her that Santa celebrates Jesus birthday by giving presents to people. Trying to focus it on the giving aspect.
These are some of the things we are doing this holiday season. I would love to hear about traditions you have. I will try to post more as I get time, time has been lacking lately...
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Thanksgiving
Next year I do want to do one activity for sure! Throughout the year, we will have a book and write down things that we are thankful for or answers to prayer (I will probably be the one compiling the list). Then after Thanksgiving dinner next year, we will go through and read all the things for which we were thankful in the previous year.
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A friend on facebook recommended this book. It is available in book format but it appears that the kindle version is free. I just ordered my own copy of the book for $1.99.
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(Quick note: I didn't buy the resurrection eggs. I got some eggs from the dollar store and here is a link with the objects and texts to use.)
She says:
"We will begin our Easter hunt for Jesus nearly two weeks before Easter. I have bought two sets of The Resurrection Eggs for the kids and an Easter tree to hang them on. Every day they will look for their egg to hang on the tree. When they find it they can open it up and see what’s inside. And then we will read about why that object is important in the Easter story.
There are several books that can be used to help explain each object. A book comes with the eggs and it gives references in the Bible. We’ll also use The Bible Story (vol. 9) and Character Building Stories (vol. 2). Another book that goes along with the eggs is Benjamin’s Box. It’s a fictional story but told from a child’s perspective.
In addition to the eggs, we will make some special cookies on the Friday before Easter. They are called Resurrection Cookies."
You can check out her blog if you would like more information. https://jrcraigphotography.wordpress.com/
We are going to use the resurrection eggs with Calissa too, thanks Julie for all the ideas! Easter Sunday will be a big celebration, a celebration of Jesus life!!
