I do my part to keep them focused on the real reason for the season by turning everything back to what Christmas is all about: a real baby, born in a real barn, fully human, with all the crying, pooping and general chaos that goes along with newborns. (They're all too familiar with that now.) There are presents because it's a birthday party. There are lights because Jesus came to be the light of the world. There's a star at the top of the tree because when Jesus was born, God put a bright star in the sky so people could find and worship the baby who was God in the flesh. We decorate, and we listen to Christmas carols, and we read special Christmas books over and over again to give our kids ample opportunity to ask questions about what Christmas is all about. And to give us every opportunity to explain this most awesome of holidays.
And this year, we made our first Advent calendar to help the kids count down the days until Christmas. We ripped the idea off from a publication by Crossway Books. Each night there's a scripture passage to read to give the kids a glimpse into the Christmas story in a simple way that's easy for them to wrap their minds around. We read a Christmas book, or the Christmas story from our children's Bible, and then one of the kids gets to put a star on the calendar along the path that leads to a picture of baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph in the manger.
I'm looking forward to making this a family tradition, and to seeing how their understanding of the amazing story of our Savior's birth deepens each year. What a privilege it is to be able to give them this foundation for understanding the Christmas season at such a young age!
Some Christmas resources we're loving this year:
- Advent Calendar (with full text of Scripture passages that we're using)
- Christmas Carols for a Kid's Heart (CD and book of classic Christmas carols with a story about the origin and meaning of each)
- The Story of Christmas by Stephanie Jeffs and John Haysom (A very well-written book that clearly and accurately tells the Christmas story without dumbing it down.)
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