I hear so often people say we do not do Santa. I am perfectly fine if you do not do Santa or if you do Santa. I do hope you choose to share the story of Saint Nicholas and choose the spirit of giving. But my question to you is not whether you choose Santa or not; it is do you choose Jesus at Christmas?
Just choosing not to do Santa does not make your holiday more religious. You have to choose to make a point of putting Jesus at the center of the holidays. I am not just talking about being at church more. You have a month to make Jesus, God's gift to you, the focus of your family. It is the easiest time of year to do so.
I would like to share some of the choices we have made to make Jesus the center. We do a Santa gift on Christmas morning, but we put a daily focus on God's gift to us everyday for the next month.
1. Choose to do a Jesus Stocking.
We have a Jesus stocking every Christmas. It helps us focus on giving back to Christ. It opens conversations on things we can do for Christ. As we buy gifts or food for the less fortunate, carol at a Nursing home, etc, we write it down and put it in the stocking. It is very important we do not become consumed about getting but instead giving. All my kids truly enjoy doing for others and Jesus.
2. Choose to use your decorations to tell the greatest story.
I have made several choices in our decorations to help us remember God's gift.
We not only have nice nativity sets, but a Fisher Price set also. Since the kids were little they can play and act out the story at anytime. It sits under our tree along with children's books telling the story. As presents fill up underneath the tree, it becomes a nice distraction and puts the focus back on God's gift to us.
We choose to use our tree to tell the story. We have white lights with red and gold balls. We use the tree to remind us of the cross, the red balls to remember the blood shed, white lights to remind us of the purity of Christ and how He makes us pure, and the gold balls to remember the promise of eternity with Christ. During the first week, we will tell the story and remind the kids how each thing can remind them of God's gift.
3. Choose to do Advent at home.
Some of you may have a church that does Advent, but I encourage you to do it at home also. This year we have ours on the dinner table. Each Sunday we will discuss what each candle represents and light that candle every night at dinner to keep our focus on what that candle represents. For example, we will talk about the hope we have in Christ each night this week.
4.Choose Candy Canes.
This is one of the best ways to tell the story of Christ. We have candy canes in our house plus even candy cane candles. One night we will read the story of the candy cane. Even the littlest child will repeat what the candy cane represents. It is so much fun to hear your little one tell the story to someone else.
5. Choose to take time for the greatest gift on Christmas Eve.
Even if you attend a Christmas Eve service, I highly recommend to have your own age appropriate one at home. We sit around our tree by candle light and tree lights and use our little nativity set to tell the story as we read from the Bible. We usually sing Away In A Manger and Silent Night. And we usually fill the Jesus stocking, too.
You can also celebrate by having a birthday cake.
Choosing to do Santa at Christmas will not keep your child from knowing about the greatest gift, but choosing not to put a focus on Christ in your home will. Choose to take 5-10 minutes every night to celebrate the greatest gift.
Books to help (all these stay under our tree):
The ADVENTure of Christmas by Lisa Whelchel (It covers everything. It is a must have and can get you through the whole season)
The Candymaker's Gift by David and Helen Haidle (The Candy Cane Story)
That's Not All I Want for Christmas by Sue Buchanan & Lynn Hodges (It is a story of a little girl who gets selfish at Christmas. It even has discussion tips and ideas in the back of the book.)
Little Boys Bible Christmas Story Book (girls version too)
Nativity books
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