Believe it or not, I am still struggling with my voice. I think “Silent Night” will be this year’s Christmas family tradition for me!
I remember last year, someone at church asked my cherubs, “What are some of your family traditions?
To my horror, they said something like, “Oh, we don’t really have any.”
What???
Like most moms, I try to make Christmas memorable and joy-filled. Charlie Brown advent calendar. Stockings hung. Operation Christmas Child boxes sent. Gifts wrapped for the needy in our community. Class Christmas party (some years).
I just couldn’t believe they couldn’t articulate any of our traditions. I feared the nice lady at church would think I was Scrooge!
Now I will admit, I am not the amazing craft mom who makes a wreath out of peppermints (yes, my friend did this and it’s AMAZING!).
I am not the baker who whips up dozens of sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, and chocolate peanut butter balls.
Made at grandmas
I’m realizing that in the busyness of the season, you don’t have to do everything.
You just have to do something.
This year, I didn’t want my kids to answer that question the same way. So I asked around the dinner table:
What are some of our Christmas traditions?
What would be good to do each year to honor Christ?
Here’s what we came up with:
-Send Operation Christmas Child boxes
-Listen to A Christmas Carol together in the car
-Tell the Christmas story in a circle (Lucy suggested this…not using the Bible, go around and tell the story of Christmas from what you remember. Although her older siblings made fun of this (they are older siblings!), I like this idea.
-Attend Christmas concert at church
-Use the advent calendar
-Christmas carol in the neighborhood
After school is out, we will have a few days before Christmas. I plan to use my friend Asheritah Ciuciu’s beautiful new book, Unwrapping the Names of Jesus: An Advent Devotional.
What are happy memories you remember from Christmas? Chances are, the things you remember with fondness are probably the traditions you want to carry on with your own kids now.
