Tag: advent

My Favorite Family Christmas Traditions

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**This post was originally published in December 2015. I have updated the post this year–the year of all years: 2020–with a few additional family Christmas traditions that we’ve added to the mix since then.**

The Christmas season is finally upon us, and it truly is the most wonderful time of the year! Even during a year full of as much uncertainty as this year–maybe ESPECIALLY during a year such as this year–our kids deserve to feel and experience the magic of the Christmas season.

During this magical season I love making special memories with my kids. Part of that memory-making involves creating new traditions–or reviving favorites from the past–with your own family. Our family has several Christmas traditions that we begin each December. If you’re looking for some new ideas to add to your own family’s repertoire, here are a few of my favorites!

Wrapped Christmas Books
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Every day in December my kids take turns unwrapping a special book for us to read together (after all, tearing off wrapping paper is one of the most exciting parts of Christmas!). The first book is always a brand-new book–an actual gift–and the rest are favorite books that we already own or that I’ve checked out from the library. Over the years I’ve collected enough Christmas books to last us through the month, but any books would work just as well (or, if you’re looking to add to your collection, just check out your local used book or thrift stores).

Advent Chain

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Kids love counting down to Christmas–and parents love having a tangible way to show them how much longer they have to wait for their most anticipated day of the year! I’ve tried several countdowns, but my favorite is a simple advent chain. This year we are using a “names of Jesus” countdown chain that shows 25 different names of Jesus with scripture reference each day.

My Secret Angel And Me

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This is a Christian alternative to the ever-popular Elf on a Shelf. The Secret Angel kit comes with a book about the true meaning of Christmas and a plush angel that “flies” to a new spot in your house each night. The kids have fun looking for their angel each morning, and I like that the focus with this kit is still on Jesus.

DecemBear Activity

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When Jon was growing up his mom made this charming activity board for him and his sister. Every day of December you move the little bear to a new designated spot on the activity board so he can look for Christmas (our version is made of fabric and the bear attaches with Velcro). In all of her resourcefulness, my mother-in-law created extra sets of the DecemBear activity so she could pass them on to her children when they were grown and had families of their own. While you can buy your own DecemBear panel on Etsy for a small fortune, your wallet might be better off making your own countdown with clipart and a printer.

Felt Christmas Tree

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Jon’s sister Stefanie made this for our family several years ago and my kids all LOVE playing with it! The tree and ornaments are all made from felt, and the ornaments attach to the tree with Velcro. We have several personalized ornaments with the kids’ names and favorite characters. Find DIY instructions here.

Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set

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I bought this set many years ago when David (now a giant 10 year old) was a toddler, but all of my kids still enjoy playing with it. The pieces are all made of durable plastic so it’s perfect for keeping within reach of curious hands. All of the pieces are movable (you can even make the angel spin across the top of the stable and, if you spin her fast enough, you can even spin her right OFF the top of the stable. HIL-AR-I-OUS). Plus, it can play music (At least, theoretically it can play music. I’ve deliberately removed the batteries from our Nativity, so we’ve been enjoying the “silent night” version for the past several years.).

Christmas Dates

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When I was growing up my parents always took each of us kids out for a special one-on-one date during the year: a date with Dad for our birthday and a date with Mom for Christmas. My first mom-and-daughter Christmas date happened when I was about 4 years old, and we haven’t missed an annual date since then!

Every year our date is different: going to the Nutcracker ballet, seeing a play or a musical, riding on the Christmas ships, spending time at the spa. Jon and I are continuing the date tradition with our kids, and I’m looking forward to spending this special time with each of them as they grow.

This year our dates will probably look a bit different–maybe a special drive to look at Christmas lights in our jammies, going into the mountains to play in the snow, or decorating gingerbread houses together over egg nog and hot cocoa. With a bit of creativity, every tradition can continue.

Santa Photos
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So…this one is a bit controversial: We don’t celebrate Santa in our family. In our family we just explain Santa to our kids as a fun game, a neat story, and that Santa represents the spirit of giving. We also teach our kids about the real St. Nicholas and the true story of Christmas from the Bible and about the greatest gift the world ever received (You can read more of my thoughts about Jesus and Santa here).

And, even though we don’t celebrate Santa per se, I do love myself some fun Santa traditions. Our Santa photo tradition is one that my parents started with me when I was a baby and that I love carrying on every yearwith my kids. It’s amazing to look at our collection of photos each year and see how the kids–and our family–has grown and changed over the years. I now have 38 years worth of Santa photos, and each these photos represent treasured memories.

In this unconventional year we had to get a bit creative with how we will continue this tradition. We were able to find a local theater that is providing “socially distanced Santa” photos–the kids will pose on a Christmas set while Santa peeks at them through a window. I just hope everyone is being nice when the big guy stops by!

The Manger Project

This year our church provided building kits for us to work together as a family and build our very own life-size manger. The kids had a lot of fun helping to build our manger (especially when Dad brought out the power tools for them to try!), and it was a great project for them in following directions and working together.

Over the next few weeks we will fill our manger with food and supplies for a local food bank so we can bless neighbors in our community that might need a bit of extra help this holiday season. 

In the years to come, I plan on bringing out our manger each year as a symbol of preparing for the coming Jesus. We will get a bunch of straw, and each time someone from our family does something to honor Jesus (a “gift” for Jesus) they will place a handful of straw in the manger. On Christmas morning the kids will discover a baby-doll “Jesus” in the manger they prepared–the greatest gift this world has ever known.

Christmas Lights

Zoolights Tacoma at Point Defiance Zoo

Driving or walking around to view Christmas light displays is a great socially-distant way to celebrate the season of light. Here are a few of my favorite local options:

22 Light Displays in the Seattle area
Woodland Park Zoo Wild Lanterns
Point Defiance Zoo Lights
Woodinville Festival of Lights
Drive-Thru Lights of Christmas at Warm Beach
Redmond Lights Walk

Sparkle Box

Amazon.com: Sparkle Box (9780824956479): Hardie, Jill: Books

This is a beautiful Christmas book about the true meaning of Christmas. If you want to check it out, you can read it online for free here or watch a read aloud of it here. 

The Sparkle Box is a gift box for Jesus that you place under your Christmas tree and open on Christmas morning before you open any other gifts. This year I plan on making our own “sparkle box” and putting it under our Christmas tree (Super fancy: a shoe box covered in sparkly duct tape from the Dollar store).

As a family we will come up with a special way we can honor Jesus with a special gift for his birthday. Ideas of gifts include sponsoring a family through a local or international aid organization, providing help or resources for the homeless, or making a donation to a charity. I’ll let the kids take the lead on this one so we can choose a gift that is meaningful to them. We will then wrap our gift in the sparkle box (or print off some info about the gift we provided). Our sparkle box will be the first gift we open on Christmas morning, and I can’t wait to experience the joy of giving AND receiving that day!

Additional activities and family resources for the Sparkle Box are available here.

Now it’s your turn–what are some of YOUR favorite holiday traditions?

Why Jesus Is The Better Santa

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Childhood is such a magical stage of life, and Christmas has to be the most magical time in childhood. For a few short weeks every year the whole world transforms in anticipation for the most magical of all days: Christmas. Of course I loved Christmas when I was growing up, but nothing compares to seeing Christmas anew through my childrens’ eyes. The wonder, the excitement, the joy– everything is magnified with young children, and I can’t get enough of it.

I have to confess: when I think of the “magic of Christmas”, though, one of the first images that pops into my mind is of a jolly old man in a red suit with eight flying reindeer. I mean, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Santa.

Or would it?

Five years ago when we celebrated our first Christmas with our first baby, Jon and I had several discussions about what to do about Santa. We wanted to keep the Christmas-focus on Jesus–and all of the hype around Santa kind of gets in the way of that.

After much thought and prayer, we ultimately decided to put Santa on the back-burner (this article does a great job expressing our thoughts on this subject). We still have fun with Santa– we tell our kids about the real St. Nicholas who loved Jesus and served the poor in His name, we read books and sing songs featuring Santa, and we get our annual photo with the big guy–but we just don’t make him the center of our celebrations. Santa doesn’t visit our house on Christmas Eve, and there’s no man at the North Pole putting our kids on the nice or naughty list.  We acknowledge Santa without prioritizing him.

What it all boiled down to is that we didn’t want Santa to compete with Jesus for a place in our boys’ hearts or minds. And why should he? Everything that Santa “can” do, Jesus CAN do better.

In fact, if you think about it, Jesus really is the better “Santa”.

Jesus is the better Santa because Santa brings gifts once a year, but Jesus gives us the free gift of eternal salvation.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

Jesus is the better Santa because Santa brings fleeting happiness, but Jesus brings forever-joy.
“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11

Jesus is the better Santa because Santa condemns those who are naughty, but Jesus redeems our sin.
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

Jesus is the better Santa because Santa comes just for kids, but Jesus came for all people.
“For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” Galatians 3:26

Jesus is the better Santa because Santa wears a tacky red suit, but Jesus is clothed in righteousness.
“He put on righteousness like a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.” Isaiah 59:17

Jesus is the better Santa because Santa brings coal for those who are naughty, but Christ brings forgiveness for all who sin.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

Jesus is the better Santa because Santa only comes once a year, but Jesus never leaves us.
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16

Jesus is the better Santa because Santa tries to complete our wish list once a year, but Jesus answers every request we bring to Him.
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:7

Jesus is the better Santa because Santa lives in the North Pole, but Jesus lives in Heaven.
“But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” Luke 22:69

Jesus is the better Santa because Santa keeps a list of “naughty or nice”, but Jesus composes the Book of Life.
“The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.” Revelation 13:8

Jesus is the better Santa because Santa brings gifts that offer temporary pleasure, but Jesus brings the timeless gift of grace.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8

Jesus is the better Santa because your belief in Santa ends in disappointment, but your faith in Jesus ends in fulfillment.
“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:8-9

I am so grateful that God didn’t just send us any old gift at Christmas, he sent us the best gift–the perfect gift. The only gift that is guaranteed to never disappoint or break or fade with time. God became man to show his great love for all people–naughty or nice; today, tomorrow and forever.

This Christmas, may you experience the great joy that comes from this love! Merry Christmas!

 

 

DIY Advent Tree

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Advent, the season of preparation for Jesus’ birth, is officially upon us. I’ve been wanting to do something special with the boys to celebrate advent, but I wasn’t quite sure what to do. Since we recently moved and downsized, we don’t have any of our Christmas decorations or usual Christmas activities with us. Plus, we’re going “home” to Seattle in 2 weeks so it’s hardly worth the effort or the expense of a full Christmas set-up at hour house here.

It seems like everyone I know went out and got their Christmas tree last weekend, so I decided that we needed a tree of our own. And that’s where I came up with the idea for our advent tree:

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I basically put together all of the ideas that I had floating around in my head and this is what I came up with: a simple, Jesus-focused project that will get my kids thinking about the true meaning of Christmas every day.

I started by painting a large tree on the back of some wrapping paper (the only paper I had that was big enough for the size of tree I wanted to make).

Then I went online and printed off some color-your-own Christmas tree ornaments and cut them out. On each ornament I wrote three things: Read, Pray, Do. For the “Read” part of the ornament I wrote a scripture verse relating to Jesus’ birth or why He was born; “Pray” has someone or something for us to pray for that day; and “Do” is a project or act of service that we will do together on that day to share Jesus’ love with others (just Google or search Pinterest for “acts of kindness” to generate a good list of ideas).

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Each day David will choose an ornament from the basket, decorate it, and hang it on our advent tree. Then we will complete the “Read, Pray, Do” items that are on the ornament.

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By the end of advent (or, in our case, the first 2 weeks of advent!) we will have a beautifully decorated tree. More importantly, though, we will have learned more about God’s great Love sent to us. And that, of course, is the most beautiful thing of all.