When November rolled around I began thinking of Christmas and of ways we could incorporate Christ more into the Holiday and make some traditions of our own. Although I enjoy all of the traditions of cookie-making, decorating the tree, carols and all of the other joys of the season; it can be very easy to succumb to the Wordly celebration of Christmas which is steeped in commercialism. I'm not saying any of those things are wrong; and in fact I look forward to those things but, what I am saying is it is important for us and our family to make sure that we are celebrating the "true" meaning of Christmas and not the "hype". I love The Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon because it is one of the "specials" on tv that actually explains the real meaning of Christmas. If you've ever seen it you know how it goes. Everybody pretty much makes a big "to-do" over the perfect tree and everything being so perfect for Christmas when Linus (my favorite), recites the story word for word from the Bible "for unto us a Savior is born" and all. I love it.
We have decided to celebrate Advent with our family. Not necessarily in a religious way but, more of our hearts being prepared for why we are celebrating Christmas. I found this great book called The ADVENTure Of Christmas- Helping your Children Find Jesus in our Holiday Traditions. It has something for everyday of the month to help you explain familiar Christmas traditions to your kids and how we can bring it back to Jesus. The word Advent means "to come" referring to Jesus coming as a baby and the season is about looking forward to celebrating the day when He came to earth as a human. I'm excited about it and I'm excited to share with you all of the different things we will do and learn.
I'd really like to know the different ways all of you celebrate Christmas with your families. Leave me a comment and let me know.
2 comments:
It isn't always applicable to the kids, but I love the Christmas carols. I love studying and meditating on what they are saying - there's some amazing theology there! And the neat thing is, once you dive into a carol and see the meaning of it, it's meaningful everytime you hear it sung. "God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen" or "Joy to the World" are great ones to start with. I remember my dad used to build our family devotions around Christmas carols sometimes hen I was little.
I wish I had been more on the ball with the Advent season this year. I am looking forward to following along as the month progresses.
I agree with Sarah about the carols - I love them and I love even more knowing the meaning and origin of the songs. I listened to a program on the radio last year about carols and it was completely fascinating.
-Andrea
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