Have you taken down your Christmas decorations yet?

I admit it, I have. Taken down my Christmas decorations, I mean.

I don't think I've ever done it so quickly, but this year the advent wreath was made so early, and the tree fell down so many times prior to Christmas... well, it felt like we were hanging on by a thread at the end, so I must admit that it was a bit of a relief to get all of the dying greenery out of my house.

That isn't to suggest that I want to dispense with thoughts of Christmas- quite the opposite, in fact. I want to linger, to remember, to cherish these warm memories of family, generosity, peace, prayer, tranquility and belonging for the rest of my days. There is something magical that happens at Christmas- beyond the presents and the day off from work- something so silent and so powerful that we can't quite describe it. Something- or someone perhaps?- comes into our hearts to gently draw us to our knees in awe of one another, our world, of creation, of our God...

So here's a glimpse of our family's memories. I am keeping out our nativity because of course the wise men haven't yet arrived to see our newborn king. For the next week they will journey closer and closer, even as Christmas becomes farther and farther from us, to continue the miracle which was begun yesterday. In our family we will continue to read a story and say a prayer by candlelight each night to remind us of the great miracle that happened so many, many years ago...

...and to keep the memories of Christmas, and all of the miracles that happen each year on that day, close to our hearts for just a little bit longer.

Merry Christmas to you all.

'Twas the Night of Jesus' Birth Story and More

Tony at Ministry-To-Children has generously shared a few free resources that families may find helpful, or at least fun, this Christmas.

Here he has re-written 'Twas the Night Before Christmas to be 'Twas the Night of Jesus' birth. It's a free download and might be a fun read for the family on Christmas Eve!

Here he has posted a "Jesus brings peace" coloring page.

Note: the King James translation of Isaiah 9:6-7 is as follows:
⁶For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
 ⁷Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Below, he has provided some Angels and Shepherds coloring pages, also for free!

Thank You Card Templates

Ministry-To-Children has posted a free set of great thank you card templates for kids to use this Christmas.

I printed these out to use with our children because they are cute and small- not too overwhelming for younger kids, but still a wonderful way to reinforce the concept of gratitude!

Happy card-writing!

The Joys of the Season?

This is a wonderful time of year. It really is. We are blessed to spend time with family and friends, to live out our traditions, to pay forward a bit of joy in our communities and watch smiles spread across the faces of strangers. There is nothing better than getting into the Christmas spirit, is there?

On the other hand, there are the hardships at this time of year. How many cookies do I have to bake? The Christmas lights aren't working? Another Christmas party? How much are these presents going to cost? How far do we have to drive to visit the family? The list goes on, doesn't it? It can be hard to remember the feeling of joy that we, as Christians, are supposed to feel at the pending birth of Christ. It can be very hard to remember how blessed we are that God sent Jesus to us, and that His coming was to be the end of our sorrows and strife. It doesn't feel like that when Junior has a cookie swap tomorrow at his Boy Scout troop which he didn't mention until right now...

But we owe it to ourselves, our families, and most of all our God to remain joyful (or at least hopeful until those cookies are done). We are doing important work as we go through even the more stressful of the holiday traditions. What we are doing matters on a larger scale than the success of one or two cookie swaps, holiday parties, or gift wrapping marathons. We are celebrating our Savior's birth, after all, and what could be more cause for celebration than that?

Still...feel free to take it down a notch. Really! We are teaching our children how to celebrate Christ's birth, and they will emulate what we teach them. So, remember that while God initiated celebrations to show Him favor (check out Leviticus if you don't believe me), He never said that we should kill ourselves to do it. What God asks of us is to show Him favor, to worship Him beyond all others, and to show one another love in His name. If that means baking cookies to you, then do it. If that means going to a neighbor's Christmas party, do it. If that means traveling, crafting, caroling... then do it. He is worth it, and so are the little ones in our lives whom we are teaching to love and respect Him.

Adorable Kids Christmas Story Movie

Check out this beautiful rendition of the Christmas story done entirely by children at St. Paul's in Auckland, New Zealand. It was shared with me by a fellow parishioner this week as something that all kids should see this Christmas, and I agree! What a heartwarming way to remember the reason for the season!

Maybe we could do this with a few of our local kids? Parents, what do you think?

Christmas Trivia Games for the Family

Here's a great way to interact with your children while reinforcing the important ideas about the Christmas story... and to brush up on the specifics yourself!

Try these quizzes- how many can you get correct?

A Christmas Quiz: online, 10 questions, free
Quizmoz: online, 14 questions, free
Christian Bible Reference: online, 6 different Bible quizzes with varying questions, all marked with "easy," "moderate," or "difficult" ratings

Christmas Camel Race Bible Board Game: printable from the internet, as many questions as you require, multiple players race to get their camel to Jesus first by answering questions correctly, cost $6.95

Enjoy some family fun with these!

Photo Credit

Sneak Peek of Godly Play Christmas Lesson

For those parents who are interested, here is what the Pre-K/K class and the Grades 1-2 class will be experiencing tomorrow (Sunday).

Go here to view the video lesson.

You can watch this alone to get a sense of what your children are experiencing in Sunday School, or you can watch it with your child to reinforce the concepts and to ask if he or she has questions for you.

Good Behavior is Hay in the Manger

...huh?

Here's a great idea to promote good behavior and Jesus-centered focus during this last week of Advent:

Each time you catch a child in your home doing something "good," or "godly," add a handful of hay to a homemade manger (ours is a used shipping box). That way, by Christmas morning Baby Jesus will have a comfortable place to sleep, and you will have illustrated the concept of preparing our hearts (and the world) to receive Christ through good deeds.

Photo Credit

Making Christmas Ornaments

While we were working on our Advent Action card about fixing the broken ornaments on our tree, we discovered that many of them were beyond repair. Oh no! I set out to find some ornament tutorials to give us ideas to make our own. Here are a few of our favorites:

I loved this idea from Thrifty Mama- making your own ornaments out of fabric scraps! Of course, I love any idea which promotes re-purposing items we already have around the house, but I liked that this was an easy one for little hands and it can be used year after year. And did I mention that it's so pretty?

Go here for the full instructions.



 
Here's another fun one from Diamond In The Stuff...




















...and another take on that from Flea Market Style.




















If you don't like those, try this link to Everything Etsy, which has links to 100 different ornament tutorials. There's no excuse to have broken ornaments on the tree now!

The Power of the Ordinary

Before you read this post, watch this YouTube video. Really.

Why did you just do that? I'll tell you. That (really good) rendition of The Little Drummer Boy was performed by a teenager in Canada with no professional music experience. He performed the music himself, his little sister shot the video, and he edited the final piece on his laptop computer. He uploaded the video to YouTube and it "went viral" (had hundreds of thousands of views in a matter of days).

So why put this story on a blog about living a Christian life? It's not really the video that is the greatest part of this story, although it IS really good. No, I was so touched by this story and inspired to share it because of the reason Sean Quigley made the video in the first place: he was looking for a way to spread the word about the real meaning of Christmas. He is a Christian teen just trying to do his part to spread God's message using his own gifts and talents. Such a humble goal, with an inauspicious start, has now made international news headlines and has reached nearly one million people worldwide!

My point is this: anyone, including young people, can do amazing things with God in your corner. I encourage you to watch the video and to share it with others to help Sean inspire people everywhere with the true meaning of Christmas!

Click here to watch the news broadcast and interview with Sean Quigley. "I just want people to remember what Christmas is all about," he says in the interview. "It's not about Santa, it's not about presents. It's about the birth of Jesus Christ."

Photo Credit

Angel Craft

This one is for the younger set- preschool and kindergartners who like getting messy will appreciate this task!

For complete project directions go here.

Nativity Silhouette Art Project

This one is for older kids, or a younger child with a lot of grown up help. These are just so beautiful!

For complete project directions, go here.

Free Nativity Preschool/Kindergarten Download

There's a great free Nativity printables set at 1+1+1=1 this week. It's appropriate for tots, preschool and kindergarten, depending upon which activities you use. You print out what you'd like to use and not what you don't! We printed the whole set and found that there was a little something for everyone in our family included- even the baby found something to munch on! :)

Christmas Party Brings Out the Spirit

This would have been the greatest (!) place to share some pictures from our wonderful youth church Christmas party yesterday, but amongst all the hustle and bustle of activity and food preparation I forgot to bring my camera! That's OK, the memories will just have to live in our hearts.

For those who don't know, I paired up with some amazing middle and high school youth group members both from our church and other local churches to provide parents with an afternoon of free babysitting. The point was to let them have some free time during such a busy time of year (and maybe get some Christmas shopping done without little eyes peeping), while the kids got to hang out with their church friends and participate in a bunch of fun activities to celebrate the season in their own way.

I was told many times that I was crazy for doing this- we had 32 kids (aged 10 months to 18 years) in the undercroft and we needed to keep them all busy for four and a half hours! Four. And. A. Half. Hours. How would we make it happen?

I confess that I fell into doubt a couple of times just before the activity began, and wondered how I could ever have gotten myself into this mess? But, as usually happens just about the time I start to think THIS TIME I've really gotten myself in over my head... the grace shown through. I've heard it called a million things- "God breezes," "epiphanies," "moments of truth," but to me it's simply God's grace coming through to little old me waaaaaay down here on earth. It comes through in those moments of uncertainty and calms the heart just enough to allow one to take the bull by the horns once more.

The best part about yesterday, however, was that the grace didn't come from inside my heart- it came from the children that I spent the day with. It came from watching the older kids so tenderly and carefully watching over the little ones: helping them to play kickball, helping them to glue the eyes on their reindeer, and helping them to decorate their Christmas cookies. It came from younger children playing respectfully with peers, and from the littlest following along innocently behind, enraptured by the commotion. The other adult chaperones and I were able to enjoy ourselves so very much thanks to the huge hearts of our parish children!

We've been talking a lot about Advent lately- in youth group, in Children's Chapel and at home. Father Tim even talked about ways that we can prepare our hearts for the coming of the Lord last week during his sermon with the children. Watching the kids interact with one another with such love and respect yesterday was all I needed to see to prove the efficacy of our teaching and goals as a Christian community.  I realized that it didn't matter if each little activity went off perfectly as planned because a bigger goal was accomplished: the children of our church spent an entire afternoon serving one another in the Spirit of God, preparing their hearts for Christmas.

(I think they had some fun, too!)

Whose birthday is it?

Our family had a great conversation last night as a result of one of our advent devotions. My son asked quite unexpectedly, "Hey Mom, if Christmas is Jesus' birthday then why do we get presents? Shouldn't we be giving Jesus the gifts?"

Well, you would think so wouldn't you? After all, we are all the recipients of gifts on our birthdays- often many, many, many gifts. So why, on the anniversary of the greatest birthday of all, should we shirk the celebrant and still give ourselves the gifts? In the way that only a five year old can, my son brought to light a very important part of this season that we seemed to be missing.

So we talked about it. "What kinds of gifts might Jesus like for his birthday?" we asked ourselves. After we got past a few of the more immediate responses (my daughter thought he'd like a princess and my son a Transformer), we decided that since Jesus teaches us to love one another, it might be a good gift for Him if we did something(s) to help other people.

Our children are already required to give 10% of their weekly earnings to a charity of their choice, and they've made some great choices in the past including giving that money to the church, to our local animal shelter, etc. But it felt like we needed to go beyond what we normally do in order to commemorate our Savior's birth in a special way. So... what to do, what to do?

We decided to sleep on it, after some discussion. After I put the kids to bed I was checking email and my favorite blogs when I came across this quote at Monkey Munch: 

“And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me."

  Matthew 18:5

They have decided to sponsor a child through World Vision as a present to Christ, and it seems like a pretty good idea to us too! I've also talked to a few families who are giving cows, wheelbarrows, chickens, etc. through Heifer International in the same spirit.

No matter what your family chooses to give Christ for his birthday, I urge you to take a moment to consider it during this very busy season. I believe that we give to Christ in the spirit of simply giving gifts to one another, but perhaps we can all reach out a little past our circle of friends and family this Christmas in Jesus' name to help those who need our gifts most.

What do you do in your family to give a birthday gift to Christ?
Photo Credit

Advent Action Cards

Today in our church was Family Sunday. This is a time, once a month, when children come upstairs and worship with the adults as part of our regular service. It's a time when we celebrate all together as one collective community, and a time when children learn about the worship service that they will be part of when their time in Sunday School and Youth Group is over. It's a beautiful tradition that I am very thankful my children get to be a part of.

Since today was Family Sunday, our rector asked all the children up to the altar to discuss Advent. Instead of using a traditional sermon, Father Tim uses this time to talk with children about some of the major changes/events/traditions in the church. Today, he wanted to talk about Advent and I must say that kids were pretty on the ball! They volunteered that it was a time of waiting for Jesus, and a time when we had to prepare our hearts for His coming. A couple even shared how the season is celebrated in their own homes. I found it interesting however, that when Father Tim asked them about what we needed to do in order to prepare ourselves- spiritually- for Christmas, kids were a little less sure of themselves. They seemed to be thinking out loud up there at the altar, "well, Christmas is Jesus' birthday, and Advent is when we wait, and we light candles..." but it seemed to trail off there. It became clear to me that we need to be more explicit with our kids about how to prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of the Lord- not just as a reminder that he came to earth over two thousand years ago, but also that he will come again.

Thus, the idea of Advent Action Cards was born. Good thing I Googled the term before I put out this blog post- it turns out that I am not the only one to ever have thought that kids might need a little more practice in the physical, daily application of Advent! Here are some great resources that I uncovered in my search- all provide daily tasks which kids can do to help put them in touch with the idea of preparing their hearts for Jesus' coming. (Implement as you like- print out cards to keep in a bowl that kids draw out each day, or put them in a calendar and let kids open one each day...)

Express Life has some great suggestions here,  and Loyola Press offers some great printable options here,. Homeschooled-kids offers this interactive calendar which depicts a scripture and related activity for each day in Advent.

Here are my family's Advent Action Card tasks:

1. Donate some toys we don't use much anymore to our charity of choice
2. Make thank you notes to use after Christmas
3. Help decorate the house for Christmas
4. Make/fill bird feeder for birds migrating south
5. Put together a care package for a deployed soldier and mail it
6. Smile at someone who looks like they are having a bad day
7. Make personal Christmas cards for grandparents
8. Fix ornaments which are falling off the Christmas tree or broken
9. Choose old towels and sheets which can be donated to our local animal shelter
10. Bring a dozen eggs to our neighbor (we have chickens- baking cookies does the same trick!)
11. Share a toy with a sibling (even if you don't want to)
12. Make homemade hot chocolate and drink it together
13. Light the advent wreath candles and let each child say his or her own prayer of thanks for our blessings
14. Read a Christmas story together. Or two. Or three
15. Bake cookies for our church Christmas Fair
16. Set up the Nativity Set
17. Watch The Nativity Story (2006) as a family
18. Gather evergreen and holly from the woods and fill flower boxes outside with it
19. Tell one friend about the wonder of Advent and the true meaning of Christmas
20. Finish making the Jesse Tree ornaments that we didn't get to last year

So you noticed there were only 20 ideas, and that doesn't cover the entire season of Advent? True- but I'm only thinking of this idea now, so next year I'll have to come up with a few more to add to our repertoire! :)

I hope your family finds the time to share even a few of these tasks, and is able to focus just a bit more on the real "reason for the season" this year!

Photo credit

Poinsettia Christmas Lesson

The Ministry to Children group has posted a wonderful Christmas lesson about the legend of the poinsettia, as told in the story Legend of the Poinsettia, by Tomie dePaola. The lesson is complete with follow up discussion questions to the story, a word find, and an art project.

This is a great post because it can be done with one child, two, three, ten or however many you happen to have around you!

Interacting with your Nativity Set

Nativity sets are wonderful tools to use to help children understand in a fundamental way what happened so, so, so many years ago, when Jesus came to walk among us. Playing with the characters in the manger and retelling the story themselves are powerful ways to encourage children to have a personal relationship with the true story of Christmas. It will develop in children a sense of ownership, and this is a meaningful building block of spiritual understanding and maturity.

Sometimes it's difficult for parents to know how to encourage such play, however.  We are *ahem* a bit removed from our own childhoods, and it sometimes hard to know how to use the figures of the nativity set both as fun tools and as teaching tools.

I have outlined here the generally accepted timeline of events leading up to Jesus' birth to help your family use the nativity set not only as decoration this Christmas season, but also as fun and meaningful ways to incorporate spiritual learning into your family time.

Week One:
On the first Sunday of Advent, set up the stable.

Week Two:
On the second Sunday of Advent, add animals.

Week Three:
On the third Sunday of Advent, add shepherds to watch over their flocks.

Week Four:
Set up the empty manger. On the morning of the 24th, add Joseph and Mary as they come to Bethlehem. On Christmas day, put Baby Jesus in the manger. Then start the wise men, coming to pay tribute to the new King. Each day they get a little closer, until they arrive on the feast of the Epiphany.

Encourage children to tell the story and to explain why you are moving the figures as you are. If they need help, fill in the gaps or give them prompts. The four week span may be difficult for younger children, who are not yet capable of retaining information for such long periods of time, so feel free to act out the entire story in one sitting, putting the figures back in their spaces when you're finished. If children add play that isn't part of the traditional story, let their creativity flow. There is plenty of time to teach them the "correct" version later- let them make the ideas and the story their own now.

*Note: it's really helpful to have a nativity set which allows Baby Jesus to come out of the manger. We use the Melissa and Doug version at our house, which uses painted wooden figures- one side contains Jesus and the other is empty.

Toilet Paper Nativity Craft

Here's a great craft from Catholic Icing- a nativity set that kids can make and play with (without damaging your nice set from Grandma)!

It's simple: download and print the free printables, color them in, and glue them to toilet paper rolls so they stand up. Voila! Instant fun for the kids, and instant educational tool! (We all know that using manipulatives and encouraging imaginary play is how kids interpret and assign meaning to the information they learn, right?) Well this activity does it all!

Free download: A Family Advent

The group Women of Faith is offering their advent publication, A Family Advent, for free as a download during the month of December! To purchase a hard copy of this book costs nearly $12, but they are offering it as a free gift to families seeking to keep Jesus as the center of the season!

My family has loved it so far! The book is broken up into the four weeks of advent and focuses on one theme per week: Hope, Peace, Love and Joy. It offers a daily scripture passage about Jesus' coming and his life, fun facts, family activities and a daily prayer.

Our family has been lighting our advent wreath for a few minutes each night and reading the short scripture and saying the prayer together. (We also add an ornament to our Jesse Tree.) It takes only a few minutes and has proven to be a very powerful- and much anticipated- nightly ritual.