A Family Christmas

Our desire each year is to give our children the gift of presence.  Yes, presence, not presents... Time together -uninterrupted -focused on establishing Christmas traditions that will connect us, strengthen our relationships, and bring laughter in our home.

Our society is wrapped up (literally!) in the materialism of Christmas.  We fight hard each year to maintain a simple celebration of Jesus' birth and moments together as a family.  Until last year, we chose not to give each other gifts at Christmas, but to use the money for activities we could do together (go out on a date, make a fancy meal together, and our favorite...making Christmas crepes late on Christmas Eve!) -Not that giving gifts is bad, in fact we value generosity and kindness towards others through gifts, but we knew that having a break from the crazed stores and Christmas hype would be good for our hearts.

The intentionality of spending time together has given us some great habits to carry forward with our kids.  And now, we've brought a few gifts back under our tree for our little ones to model giving to others, thankfulness in receiving, and enjoying time opening the gifts and playing together.

I came across a great idea recently in this blog for a simple advent envelope calendar.  Each day there is an idea of giving or sharing, and then an activity or craft to complete that day

I've adapted the idea for our family (little fingers would open EVERY envelope on the first day!) I'm not putting together a calendar this year, but I am making note of our Christmas traditions (old and new) for the years to come.

Here's what we've included so far:

~prayed for those who may feel alone this season and for those we know who are not well, may Jesus be near to them
~go to a Christmas parade and bring a food donation
~given the gift of a smile
~given the gift of a hug
~written notes of appreciation (or draw a picture) for someone
~shared a special something with a family member
~shared the gift of a Christmas carol with someone—over the phone, at home or somewhere else
~snuggled up in PJs and read Christmas books together
~read and acted out the Christmas story from Luke 2
~talked about Christmas traditions around the world
-worked on Christmas crafts
to be continued....