It’s the first week of December and the Holiday season is officially, officially upon us. Most of us have decked our halls, we are finishing up our Christmas shopping lists and we are knees deep in pompoms and tinsel planning out fun activities to do with our kids. I personally love going all out for Christmas and I spare nothing when it comes to making cookies, festive DIYs, and wrapping presents under the tree. While all these things do make the Holidays the Holidays for me, I never want to forget what the true meaning of Christmas is really about. In this blog I share some traditions our family does to make our Holiday season more centered on Christ. Let’s get into it!
Traditions For Your Kids
My kids are still really young, three and under, so I have yet to start Elf on the Shelf or any elaborate Advent calendars but instead I do a small Advent calendar incorporating the Christmas nativity. I set one piece of the nativity in the calendar for the kids to find each day and by Christmas they are able to build the entire nativity with baby Jesus arriving that morning. I started this tradition when Brock was one using the Fisher Price Nativity. To keep his enthusiasm alive, I felt I needed to mix it up this year so we have upgraded to the wooden nativity shown. Now the Fisher Price one is perfect to leave out for them to play with during the month. I admit that they are still very young to understand but I think it’s important to at least present the Christmas story to them so that when they do start to learn about it, it will hopefully seem more familiar to them.
I also have a few Christ-centered Christmas books out for the kids amongst the traditional Twas’ A Night Before Christmas and The Grinch. I like to get them a new book to open every year with their Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve so I am still on the hunt for a new one but these three books are some of my favorites. I especially love the one that refers to Christmas as a birthday party for Jesus because I feel like that is something that Brock can grasp at his current age.
If you have grade school kids, the church we go to has put together an Advent calendar with different Christ-centered activities for each day of the month that I thought was really neat so I wanted to share. Everything you need to follow along is linked on their Instagram.
Traditions For You & Your Spouse
My husband and I have done an Advent calendar for the two of us since having kids. In year’s past we have each written out 12 gestures for one another and placed them in the calendar for each day. The gestures varied from a foot rub, a homemade dinner of choice, an afternoon off from the kids; basically anything and everything that we thought the other would appreciate. We truly felt this was a great reminder for us to prioritize each other as our relationship tends to get pushed to the back burner with kids are in the picture, especially multiple kids.
This year we are trying something a little different and using the 4o Day Love Challenge based on the movie Fireproof. I love that the gestures are Biblically rooted and each challenge gives a verse as to why it is important. Reading through the days of the challenge, it does get very deep and I found that some are intended more for personal growth. However, I went through and wrote out the ones that are gestures intended for your spouse and there were about 20 to use. I am excited to give this a try this year in our attempt to make our Christmas season even more Christ-centered.
Bonus: If you haven’t seen Fireproof, it is a great movie to watch explaining the 40 Day Love Challenge and just a great movie about some struggles of marriage.
Traditions For You
The past few years I have read Jesus Calling for Christmas during the month of December. This is something that I found I desperately needed in order to keep my Christmas priorities straight. I tend to get lost in the classic Christmas traditions of Santa Claus and Jingle Bells and stray from the true meaning of Christmas when I am not reminding myself daily what is important.
I am trying something a little different this year and reading a Chapter from Luke every day until Christmas. I was scrolling Instagram the other day and saw that my good friend was doing this and I thought to myself that it was such a great idea as she shared that Luke is 24 chapters and gives an account of Jesus’ entire life. I am going to get real honest and share that I have not opened my bible in a long while. I tend to gravitate toward devotionals instead but when I opened my bible today to start one chapter of Luke a day, I found my place marker ironically on Luke Chapter 1. Definitely a sign that this is what I need to focus on this month.
Traditions For The Whole Family
Last but certainly not least, the tradition that I am most excited about starting this year are these serve cards from Crew & Co! Derek and I always talk about wanting to serve and give back especially during the Holiday season to show our kids how incredibly blessed we are. Sadly our intentions usually get drowned in the chaos of the Holiday season and we fall short in this area simply because we lack ideas of what to even do. I was so excited when the Ad for these cards popped up on my Instagram last month as they were exactly what I felt we needed to live out our intentions of serving. I love that the cards give you an act of service to do along with scripture to read explaining why it’s important to serve in that particular way. In order to not overwhelm ourselves but to also feel like we truly served this Holiday season, our goal is to complete at least 10 acts of service this month as a family.
If 2020 has taught me anything it has been to lean on my faith more than ever and that is why I really wanted to intentionally plan traditions that focus on the true meaning of Christmas. If there is a Christ-centered tradition that you and your family do, I would love to hear about it in the comments below! As always, thank you so much for reading!
