We have made some changes to how we are "doing" Christmas this year.
We aren't putting up a Christmas tree. I couldn't see any biblical significance to this or see how it pointed our thoughts to Christ, so instead, I bought I nativity set and we put that up. We also are not doing stockings. Again, what is the biblical significance? As in the past few years, we are only giving three gifts to each of the girls in memory of the three gifts the wise men gave Christ. We will read the Christmas story out of Luke 2 on Christmas Eve and do the "What Jesus really wants for Christmas" devotion on Christmas Day. We are adding a study of the Advent this year since I am the girls' Sunday School teacher. Even while doing all of this to help us keep Christ as the focus this year, I still felt this nagging feeling we should be doing more.
I read a blog post which lead me to this post about remembering whose birth we are actually celebrating at Christmas. She makes a really good point (which was pointed out to her by her then 4 year old son!). Since money has already been spent on gifts this year, I'm not sure how much of this we can do, but we might try to start a new tradition this year on a small scale and just make it bigger and bigger each year.
I encourage you to check the post out and see if God challenges you to make changes. It might not be for everyone, but what is for everyone is to focus on Christ during Christmas. That may look differently for everyone, but I pray we all make an effort to bring Christ back to Christmas!
oh how my heart desires to do just that! give away! i am constantly at my husband about Christmas and the real meaning. i always tell my boys the story of Christmas and what it meant for Jesus to be born!
ReplyDeletemy husband isn't there yet, but i keep at him and keep praying that one day he will see what i see...that Christmas isn't about what we get our boys or mom or friend..it's about what Jesus gave for us! thanks so much for sharing this link! i am still crying!
Thanks for the link! It's interesting seeing what God is doing in someone else's heart this season. I too did not put up our Christmas tree this year. I have spent the last month making decorations that are multi-coloured (actually kind of rainbow) because red and green has no real significance to me (especially in Australia where there is no snow or holly ever!)
ReplyDeleteMy plan is to build and paint a largish nativity scene for next year and sculpt and carve the figurines too. Big project!