Christmas Traditions

 

Confession, we do not have an elf on the shelf.  Please don't hear me say that and think I am against the idea...I am not.  I saw all the amazing and creative things that people do with these elves, and I knew myself well enough to know that I would not be able to keep up with that type of thing.  However, I loved the idea of a countdown to Christmas.  

As a parent I see how quickly my kids can make this whole month about themselves and I wanted something to refocus our attention on Jesus and to truly prepare our hearts to celebrate His birth.  And that's why we started the tradition of our Christmas Countdown.  It's nothing fancy as you can see from the picture above!  I plan out the month and then put little slips of paper in the doors with the Bible reading on one side and an activity or surprise written on the other side.  

For the readings this year, we are going through the Aurora Behold Devotional together.  And for the activities/surprises, the options are really endless.  My goal is to try to make those about someone else...so baking Christmas cookies to hand out to our neighbors, or delivering a meal to a family, or grabbing a "gift for you card" and blessing someone else.  Although sometimes we do throw in just a fun event like driving around with hot chocolate and looking at Christmas lights, or having a family movie night and watching Polar Express.  

Let's be honest, there are days I run out of ideas or just know that our evenings will be busy so when that happens, I do something called "stocking surprise", which is a small gift in the kids' stockings (and I mean small, like fuzzy socks and their favorite candy, or random goodies from the Target dollar section).  Now you may be reading this and thinking, "That sounds great Jillian but we're already well into December and I haven't done any of this." Ok, I hear that.  But I promise it's not too late and your family will love this.  

If you want to simplify things, you could just do the devotional readings, or just the verses (if your kids are small and can't sit still very long...we've been there and I get it) and maybe you do one family activity a week rather than something daily.  The goal of this is not to add stress to your December, but to help your family be intentional about preparing your hearts for Christmas. This season looks different than it has in years past, but this countdown tradition we started when the kids were little is something we've been able to do this month and to look forward to even in a time when life looks different.

~Jillian