It's Friday! And that means Jaima. Hi cute girl, take it away!
All year, since this post, Andrew & I have thought and thought about how we would celebrate Christmas this year. And even though it’s fast approaching, we’re still not 100% sure.
As I mentioned in a previous post, growing up, I always celebrated Christmas with my Dad’s family Christmas Eve and then after Santa came, we celebrated it with my Mom’s family. Once we got married, we started celebrating Christmas Eve with Andrew’s family instead (except the last two tragic years).
But now that we have Elizabeth, and since Mom (whose favorite day was Christmas) is no longer here, we’re not sure how to celebrate.
Of course we will keep a lot of our traditions the same, but like I said last year, it can be overwhelming, and we really want Elizabeth to appreciate things and truly understand why we celebrate Christmas. We want to teach her to humbly give to others and to gratefully accept from others. We don’t want her to live to see how many dolls she can collect (and not remember who gave them to her) and how many cookies she can eat, but we still want to make it magical for her.
I posted on facebook today about our dilemma, and here are a few of the responses I received:
“if you decide what your family will be like, regardless of what everyone else does, God will bless you and Elizabeth will be a content girl. and don't forget to tell her WHY you do what you do.”
“we have "Santa" but we don't focus on him. We put focus more on giving to others, especially people we don't know. Like a name from the angel tree and remind our children that we can be a Santa to others. There is a book called ‘Santa are you for real?’”
“I agree with the sentiment about "stuff". I would suggest givin her some kind of experience that she might like, such as going to see the ice sculptures and the lights at opryland and maybe make a photo book of you and her and A that is sturdy enough that she can look through it and play with it whenever she wants. Also, I would say yes to Santa, at least in some capacity because it is a very magical, innocent part of childhood”
“I have a friend with 5 children and she started the tradition long ago that her children only recieve 3 gifts each from Santa. She has taught them that baby Jesus received three gifts from the wisemen when he was born and that we are celebrating his birth. She makes sure that each of their gifts is something special not just a video game or anything like that. And just another note, since my children where small we have always made a baby Jesus birthday cake as one of our Christmas desserts. We still do this now! (yellow cake with homemade chocolate buttercream frosting and sprinkles)”
“One present on the day of Christmas -- just like Jesus is the one present that the world needs. Happy Birthday cake for Jesus, too. The rest is superfluous.”
“Jaima, I think santa is a important part of a child's life. If you ever see the wonder in her eyes as she looks at santa ,you will agree. Don't let her miss out on leaving cookies for santa and writing him a letter. You don't have to go wild and buy lots of things, just get her special gifts that she will love. I don't think christmas was ever intended to be christ birthday. There is no where in the bible that tells us that it is.christmas is a man made holiday not a religious one.”
Do you celebrate Christmas? What are your traditions?
We open one gift from the parents on Christmas Eve which is traditionally a piece of clothing that is worn to Christmas Eve services that night, the next morning Santa does come but only brings a max of 3 gifts per person plus a stocking filled by mom & dad. We bake a cake on Christmas Eve as well and celebrate with singing happy birthday on Christmas day to celebrate the birth.
ReplyDeleteMy mother started the tradition of laying out new jammies for each child at the foot of our beds, so we could change into them and come down Christmas morning. I have kept up that tradition and funny part that is one thing that we all look forward to jammies with fuzzy socks or slippers.
We don't opt to "pig out" on Christmas with a lavish meal. We will prepare a nice breakfast and then later have a late lunch/early dinner in the afternoon.
Since we are one of the few that don't live near all the family, the rest of the day is spent on the phone making calls to family/friends wishing them a very happiest of holidays.
Thanks for your comment! We always got to open one gift on Christmas Eve, too. It was always Christmas pajamas and an annual ornament. We had to take a Christmas Eve family photo (sometimes the only one all year with all of us) in our new pajamas before getting in bed!
ReplyDeleteA few years ago during my "after" Christmas shopping I picked up a little count down to Christmas house with little numbered door on it. And since it was 75% off at Target I got it for practilly nothing!! So the following Christmas it makes a debut on December 1st with a little candy behind the door with #1 and a note for both of my kids from their elves. They love finding their little treats and sometimes notes of "elf wisdom" to do be extra nice or help someone that day...and even a reminder to brush their teeth!! LOL! For something that was at first a bargain it's been a great new tradition that we love to do.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your honesty. We struggle to keep the focus on Christ through out the CHRISTmas season, as opposed to the "give me's!"
ReplyDeleteOne thing we do is have a birthday party for Jesus. We save a place for Him at the table, decorate with balloons and sing Happy Birthday to Him. We use one, special recipe - a red velvet cake with peppermint frosting - and we only have it for Jesus' birthday - no other time of year. There are some scriptures that we read and we talk about the symbolism of this particular cake. And, we leave a slice of this cake for Santa (because Santa helps to spread the joy of Jesus).
We also put up an advent tree. Underneath the small advent tree are 25 small boxes. Inside each box is a scripture and a small piece of candy for each child. After we have cleaned up from dinner, we sit together on the couch and read the scripture for that day (each one leads up to the birth of Christ). The candy just helps the younger children sit still while we are reading (the candy is saved from Halloween). This is something my kids look forward to all year and they can't wait for it each evening!
Santa only brings one gift and fills their stockings. They receive 3 gifts from us. I have read where someone gives their children 4 gifts - one to a want, a need, a wear, a read.
I am looking forward to hearing some other ideas!