Christmas Traditions

I've been pondering some things in my heart lately. I've been thinking about Christmas traditions. Do you have meaningful traditions that you carry out with your children each year? What is the reason for traditions anyway? According to Webster, traditions are "the handing down of customs, beliefs, etc from generation to generation by word of mouth rather than in written records." Traditions are important to provide security for our children and to reinforce the true meaning of Christmas. I can still remember our family traditions from my childhood: driving to New York to visit my grandparents, eating molasses candy, attending the late night service on Christmas Eve... so many special memories! It is our desire to establish traditions for our children that will help them to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. When they were all young, we made the choice to focus on Jesus at Christmas-time and to leave Santa out of the picture. It seems so difficult to keep those two in proper balance, and we were not willing to tell our children an untruth. That does not mean that we condemn those who play the Santa game!! It is simply a personal choice. Therefore, when the children were very small, they called Santa "Noah"!! They really didn't even know who Santa was until later in life, and it didn't hurt them! When well meaning strangers and friends asked the inevitable question, "What is Santa going to bring you?" we taught our children to respond, "My Heavenly father brings me all my good gifts." Now that they are all older, we have been known to watch a movie such as "Miracle on 34^th Street", but Santa is simply a fictional Christmas character such as Frosty or Rudolph!

Our Christmas begins the day after Thanksgiving, because that has always been the only day that Dad had off and had time to participate! Being in the ministry, December is usually too busy to turn around! We get up early and get started moving boxes of Christmas decorations up from the basement. Then we begin setting out our favorite decorations in all the old favorite places. It usually takes two days to complete it all! On Friday night we set up our tree and watch a Christmas movie as we string popcorn to use on the tree. When the tree is completely decorated, we turn out all the lights and sing Christmas carols by the light of the tree. Usually we are involved in singing at various events on this weekend as well. We put up our Advent calendar to help the children count down the days until Christmas, and they take turns putting the felt figures up on the manger scene each day. We also read an Advent book each year along with lighting the candles in our Advent wreath. There are several good books that we love; three especially that are in a series: Jotham's Journey, Bartholomew's Passage, and Tabitha's Travels by Arnold Ytreeide. These books have an ongoing story that focuses on Jesus and ends up at the manger. It is a wonderful way to bring our thoughts into captivity at Christmas! We also have special Christmas ornaments called "Adornaments" that have devotions to read about the names of Jesus. The children take turns reading those and placing them on the tree.

We have always encouraged our children to look at Christmas as a time of giving, instead of getting! Therefore, they have never made up "wish lists" of gifts that they are hoping for. We prefer to surprise them!! It also keeps the focus on giving! We try to prepare a gift from the Angel tree for a needy boy or girl, or we prepare a box for Operation Christmas Child. These are especially fun when we know that David will be delivering them to children in Mexico! For our neighbors, we have always tried to think of gifts that would express the real reason for the season. One year we gathered pine cones at the cemetery and bought beautiful baskets in which to put them. We wound white lights through them, added a simple red bow, and printed Christmas cards about Jesus being the Light of the World. One year we baked pumpkin bread, wrapped it attractively and made cards about Jesus being the Bread of Life. Who knows how God might use a simple word of witness?! We love to deliver these gifts as we carol in our neighborhood.

Cookie making always enters the picture when we have time to make (and clean up) a mess!! There's no substitute for cutting out those cookies, baking and decorating them!!

One tradition that our children began when they were young is that of "Christmas Eve gifts". Each of the children would pick out toys that they owned that their brothers and sisters wanted, and would sacrificially give them as Christmas Eve gifts. Of course, this worked out better when they were young and had similar interests!! These gifts have now changed into small, optional gifts that they make or purchase that will enhance the excitement of Christmas Eve!

Each Christmas Eve we also try to give our children a new Christmas story book...one that will point them to the real meaning of Christmas or to the spirit of giving. We keep these special books in a big basket on the hearth, and only bring them out at Christmas time, so the children always look forward to reading these books in December!

Christmas Eve is always our Birthday Party for Jesus! This party is still meaningful even as the children have grown! At this party, we always have a birthday cake decorated as a gift to remind us that Jesus was the "perfect gift". We eat our favorite goodies, have party punch, and then go into the living room to read the Christmas story and the last story in our Advent book! We also fill out a gift shaped card telling what we are going to give Jesus this year, and then we share those things with the family. What a blessing that has been as we've heard the children give Jesus their hearts, their time, their possessions, their goals and dreams, their plans, and themselves! We then open our Christmas Eve gifts, which include a special book for each from Mom and Dad, and Christmas pajamas (A tradition that was started by MY grandmother!). We usually gather around the tree and dive into the new books for a while, and then open a special Christmas movie to watch!

On Christmas morning, we gather on Mom and Dad's bed for Wisdom Search before we go down the stairs. If there is anyone who has just learned to read during the year, we present them with their own leather Bible engraved with their name! After Wisdom Search we line up in birth order and come down the stairs where we have to wait and endure lots of pictures before they tear into their stocking and then the gifts! We TRY to open gifts in an orderly way, but our efforts have never been too successful!! It's just too hard with so many of us all anxious to see what's in those packages! Maybe someday when they're all grown, we'll sit and leisurely open our gifts! The rest of Christmas Day is taken up with our special Christmas dinner, reading those new books, playing with various toys, working on a jigsaw puzzle, and just enjoying the day together! This is our favorite family time!!

Every family has their special way of celebrating, and our isn't any more special than yours. I just feel that traditions are an important part of a strong family life, and wanted to share a few of ours! If you have some special traditions to share, please E-mail me! I'd love to hear about them!! Our traditions have played a big part in making memories with our children and pointing them to Christ!