Christmas Traditions that Bring Your Family Closer to Jesus Christ

We grew up in a family that did Christmas BIG!  I mean really BIG. The first time my husband spent Christmas with my family he was awed … at the food, the decorations, the gifts, the chaos.  The family we raised together had pretty good Christmases too, not on the caliber of my Mother’s Christmases, but pretty good. But, looking back if I had to do it all again I’d have a very different Christmas with less commercialism and more traditions.  Especially traditions that celebrate the true meaning of Christmas — the birth of Jesus Christ.

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What we really want for Christmas

In the book Unplug the Christmas Machine by Jo Robinson and Jean Coppock Staeheli they write: From talking with children, parents, and child specialists, we’ve learned that in addition to a few well-chosen gifts, children really want and need four basic things for Christmas:

1. Relaxed and loving time with the family
2. Realistic expectations about gifts
3. An evenly paced holiday season
4. Strong family traditions

These four unspoken needs play the determining role in whether or not children and adults have a good family Christmas.  I have read and reread Unplug the Christmas Machine.  I believe in the concepts shared in this book. Be sure to find the Christmas Pledge!

Have a Christ-centered Christmas

Having a Christ-centered Christmas can give your children the best — not only a good — but the best family Christmas. I’m not saying we should skip the gifts and decorations and all the fun things like decorating cookies, sitting on Santa’s lap, making a wish list, gift shopping, etc. I just feel it’s not too late to add traditions to the Christmas season that bring us closer together as a family and closer to our Savior.

If you are a newly married couple or parents of young kids you can easily begin the family traditions that celebrate Christ’s birth. If you’re the parents of teenagers or grandparents it’s not too late to adapt old tradtitions or add new traditions to your Christmas season. Get your teenagers involved in choosing new traditions. You might be surprised at what they want to do!

 

Have you ever wondered how to have a more Christ-Centered Christmas? I have, and I admit, in today’s materialistic world it is really hard! Even before Halloween and Thanksgiving are over, we are bombarded with distractions that take us away from the true meaning of Christmas. December is a crazy busy month. It’s hard to juggle family parties, school activities, church celebrations, and extracurricular obligations. Yet the focus on Christmas is not parties, shopping, baking, or even family time, but on our Savior Jesus Christ.

Over the years, I’ve taught many classes on family traditions and on creating a Christ-centered Christmas. I’ll share with you what I’ve been sharing and ideas I’ve gotten from others.  Let’s get started with some ideas:

Have a plan

Everything is easier when we have a plan. Decide now what existing or new traditions you want to bring into your Christmas celebration. Choose the traditions that will work best for your family, your time limitations, and your budget. Order what needs to be purchased early, buy the supplies for crafts and baking, start a holiday calendar so your new traditions take center stage. But …

Remember some of the things that children (and adults) really want are relaxed time with family and an evenly paced holiday season. That means you cannot do everything that seems appealing. Do what is best for your family. You may save some activities for after Christmas when kids are on school break.

Create a calendar

Create a calendar of events.  List the “must do” things like a work party or your family’s annual white elephant party. Then consider what activities will bring you closer to Jesus and celebrate His birth.  If you have young children make a poster and add photos of things you plan to do. If you have teens or adult children (don’t you love that term – adult children?) have them add events on their IPhone. Don’t feel like you have to schedule something major for every day. The best traditions are simple and done at home. The Christmas holiday doesn’t have to end on December 25. One year Santa came to our house on January 6th! But that’s another story.

You probably have an advent calendar counting down the days until Christmas. But this year try an advent activity calendar. I love this Big Erasable Calendar, especially for kids. You can stick it to your fridge and mark it up with erasable markers. And here are some cute printables you can stick on the calendar! Remember, you can’t do it all. Click to download the printables for Christmas Calendar Activities. You can laminate, trim and add a magnet to these so they last longer.

Make the nativity your focal decoration

Maybe it’s time to scale back on all the decorations that focus on Santa, elves, and snowmen. Add a Nativity scene or two (or more) to your decorating. Display it in a place where it can be seen daily by family members. Making it the focus in your holidays will allow your family to ponder the birth of Jesus Christ and keep Him in their hearts and thoughts during the Christmas season.

Use the scriptures tell the story of each figure in the nativity

• Set it up as a family and read the scriptures about each piece. Laurie from the Tip Junkie shares this narrative about each person and animals in a nativity set.
• Wrap each piece and open one piece each day. Let the baby Jesus be the last gift to open on Christmas eve. You can use the Tip Junkie narrative as you open.
• Read A Christ-Centered Christmas. Discover how each figure of the nativity can lead your family closer to Christ this Christmas season. The narrative in this book is perfect for a book club, women’s group, family dinner, etc. Our congregation used this narrative a couple years ago for our women’s Christmas dinner.
• Read A Christ-Centered Christmas: Children’s Edition to your children. Your children will love the illustrations and age-appropriate text that tells the nativity story and suggests activities children can do.
• Put out a small manger and little by little fill it with hay awaiting the baby Jesus’ arrival on Christmas. Each piece of straw could represent an act of service by members of the family. Our family watches The Last Straw several times during the Christmas season.  It’s thought-provoking and perfect for the whole family from children to adults.
• This is a good time to talk about the symbols of Christmas, many of which are part of the nativity but have been commercialized. Rachel from The Mormon Home shares a Symbols of Christmas matching game that is quite amazing!
• Our family has this 25 Days of Christ Ornament Set which tells the Nativity story.  We use it every other year.

Center your crafts around the nativity

Make or purchase a nativity set your children can play with. One of my fondest memories is of my toddler son. He loved his yellow dump truck and loaded up the truck bed and drove everything around the house including my breakable nativity pieces. When I saw him do that I knew it was time to make an indestructible set for him. Many of my sets are child-friendly. Some were purchased but many are hand-made. We own and love the Fisher Price Little People Nativity and Melissa & Doug Wooden Nativity. But my favorites are the homemade sets.

• Camille from Growing Up Gabel shares an idea for Nativity ornaments made from ingredients you have on hand, permanent markers, and nativity cookie cutters.
• Use nativity ornaments to tell your children the Nativity story as you decorate the Christmas tree as a family.
• Rainy Day Mum shares this cute idea to make Nativity Story Stones
• Sarah from Bombshell Bling shares 30 Christ-centered activities for children
• Ginger from Ginger Snap Crafts shared a simple wood nativity:  2×4 Wood Nativity Blocks

Center your baking around the nativity

• Instead of making a gingerbread house make a stable scene See: nativity scene for your kids.  Amazon offers Gingerbread Nativity Kit and Advent Gingerbread Nativity.  Trader Joes also has a nativity gingerbread kit.
• Make sugar cookies in the shape of nativity characters. Try these nativity cookie cutters.
• Brandy from Glue Sticks shared this darling graham cracker and candy edible nativity
• Mother’s Niche shares this cute and quick idea Baby Jesus in a Manger Treats and Gingerbread Nativity House
• Instead of giving friends and neighbors food treats why not give them Nativity Ornaments.  Believe it or not but you will save you time and money and this gift will last.
• Here’s a good sugar cookie recipe with ideas for hosting a cookie decorating party.

Attend or host a nativity display

About 12 years ago a friend and I were talking about our nativity sets. Chris had about a dozen and I had about a dozen. Then we started talking about creche displays we had visited in Ann Arbor, MI, and in Palo Alto, CA. By the next year, we had a creche display planned for our congregation and ended up displaying over 350 nativity sets. Well, this year is our 11th Annual Community Nativity Festival here in Huntersville. If you live nearby please join us!  Details: Community Nativity Festival.  Don’t tell my husband that about 80 of the nativity sets are ours!

• Attend a Nativity Festival (Do a search for nativity festivals). Often they are called Creche displays, too. Creche means a model representing the scene of Jesus Christ’s birth, displayed in homes or public places at Christmas
• Host a Nativity display in your own home. I visited a friends house where she displayed nearly 50 nativity sets. For fun, she had a scavenger hunt giving clues about the sets which encouraged you to really look closely at each beautiful nativity.

Read and act out the nativity story

Perhaps the best way to remember the birth of Jesus this Christmas season is to read the nativity story right out of the Bible. Take time with your family to read through the story together. Discuss thoughts, feelings, and questions with your children so you can bring the spirit into your home. Children of all ages like to dress the part and act it out.

• Hubbard’s Cupboard offers a good selection of scriptures and stories to add to a paper chain but would be a good narrative:  Bible verses for paper chains
• Act it out with nativity costumes and stuffed animals.  We have these darling animal costumes but most of our costumes are made from leftover fabric, towels, and bathrobes.
• Vanessa from Mama’s Happy Hive has compiled a great list of 25 Hands-On Nativity Lessons for Kids
• Karen and Anita at Live Like You Are Rich share How to put on a nativity skit with script, songs, and costumes
• If you’re in charge of your congregation’s Christmas party center it around Bethlehem and the Savior’s birth. No need to invite Santa!

Serve others

Not everyone will receive gifts from this Christmas. Help someone in need this Christmas by giving them a few gifts or gift cards and supplies to make a nice Christmas dinner. Include your whole family in the planning and preparation. If you need ideas on whom to serve talk to your pastor, school counselor, or choose a name from a local store “Angel Tree”.

• #LighttheWorld – Service Ideas for December
• Angel Tree, Toys for Tots, Christmas Child Box – find an organization that helps children have a happy Christmas.
• Christmas Jar – Another one of my favorite Christmas books is Christmas Jar by Jason F Wright. A few years ago right after Christmas, we started a Christmas Jar adding loose change throughout the year. By the following Thanksgiving, we had stashed away over $370.  I knew just who I wanted to give it to.  A woman in our congregation who was recently separated with 5 children. I arranged for our pastor/bishop to give it to her one day after church. She didn’t know who it was from and that’s just how it should be. The following year a family I knew asked me to find two families in need and deliver Christmas jars. I love doing that!
• Anysoldier.com – The day our son graduated from Basic Training at Ft Jackson in South Carolina, I had a few minutes to talk to a chaplain and his wife. Somehow the conversation lead to the topic of how many young soldiers had no one at home writing, emailing, visiting or sending them packages.  They were alone.  That conversation gnawed at me. Soldier or non-soldier everyone needs one person who loves them and takes care of them.  I can’t be “mom” to everyone but I can write to soldiers and send occasional care packages not only at Christmas but for other holidays and their birthday.  Will you join me?  Any Soldier or Soldier’s Angels
• The #1 thing the homeless ask for is socks!  If you have a party ask the guess to bring socks. Buy socks to hand out or drop off at a homeless shelter.
• Rachel from Train Up A Child in the Way shares a wonderful list of ways to Celebrate Christ at Christmas with Acts of Giving
• Go Christmas caroling singing traditional Christmas hymns. Families with young children and older people living alone really love this.
• Friends & Neighbor Gifts – Could your gift have more of a Nativity theme instead of a Santa theme?
• Need some quick cookie gifts? Christine shares Three Ingredient Cookies .

12 days of Christmas service project 

The 12 Days of Christmas is something our family does every year. Sometimes I’m well-organized and have it ready to go weeks ahead of time and sometimes I’m coming up with something every day. We have fond memories and delivering our packages to various families and trying to be sneaky and not get caught. We still laugh about the time we hid behind a family’s boat as they came out of the garage, their dog was barking like crazy, they got in their car and drove away.  That was a close one.  We also laugh about the time our daughter Megan crouched down under a window to avoid being caught as the “dad” stared out the window (shirtless we might add!).

One of our most enjoyable experiences was sharing scriptures and a nativity set with a neighbor family with 6 children. The kids talked about how much they loved getting the surprises and treats each morning. They never knew it was us for sure but they kind of guessed it was us. Once again I hid in the bushes one night to avoid getting caught!

• We’ve gifted mugs, candy canes, wrapping paper, baked goods, etc. But my favorite (easiest and cheapest) thing to deliver is a nativity set
• We’ve used both of these nativity sets in our 12-days of giving:  Olive Wood Children’s Set and  Miniature Kids Nativity Set with Stable.  I guess we’ve always done this for families with small children.  You could find a more grownup set to give too.
• Anita and Karen from Live Like You Are Rich shares a lot of good ideas. One idea is to mail 12 gifts to open each day instead of leaving them on the porch.  12-day of Christmas ideas
• Pam from Over the Big Moon takes all the work out of delivering a daily piece of the nativity with 12 Days of Christmas Nativity Countdown printables.

Bring spiritual music into your home

There is beautiful Christmas music out there. Hundreds of playlists that include our favorites like Jingle Bell Rock, White Christmas, Grandma Got Run over by a Reindeer, Rudolph, etc. All these songs have their place in our Christmas celebrations but let’s add MORE spiritual songs to our playlists.  These are my favorites songs:

 

If I could only own one Christmas album it would be Trisha Yearwood’s The Sweetest Gift.  I love her voice and her choice of songs.  These are my favorite Christmas albums:

Watch a movie about the birth and life of Jesus Christ

We have many Christmas movies we watch every year: The Family Man, Home Alone, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Christmas Story, etc.  All of these may be set during the Christmas holiday season but they really are NOT Christmas movies.

What better way to remember Christ than watch a movie about the life of Jesus Christ? Watching your choice of a movie will help you to remember Jesus Christ this Christmas season, his birth, his life, his ministry, his death, and his resurrection. The Nativity Story is our favorite but there are lots of free ones out there too.

This year will be different

This is the year to redefine what makes a good Christmas.  By bringing new traditions into our Christmas celebration or adapting current traditions we can have the best family Christmas ever!