Christmas Traditions

Christmas Traditions 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the Glass Ranch. The day after Thanksgiving I make the trek up the attic stairs and drag down all the boxes full of Christmas decorations to begin the task of beautifying my home for the holidays.  Decorating the day after Thanksgiving is a tradition that my parents started long ago.  Year after year they purposed to do things that would make lasting memories for my siblings and I.  Now that I have a family of my own I realize just how essential it is to create an atmosphere that not only turns the hearts of my children to home but most importantly to Jesus!  With the holiday season upon us I wanted to share some of the ways that we have built strong family ties and brought Christ into our Christmas.

• Make a birthday cake for Jesus

          We have been doing this since Riley, Rachel, and Ben were old enough to blow out the candles. 

          We sing happy birthday to Jesus and celebrate His entrance into the earth.  Now that Riley and 

          Rachel are teenagers one might think that they would have outgrown this tradition.  To the 

          contrary they look forward to it and as a bonus they do the baking!  Laughing and cooking 

          together in the kitchen is such a delight.  

• Adopt an Angel Tree child

         Each one of our children chooses a needy child from the Angel Tree at school and then blesses 

         them with gifts.  This is a wonderful opportunity to impart how Jesus loved and 

         cared for the needy and broken.

• Read the Christmas story on Christmas Eve

          We cozy up by the fire and my husband Robert reads the precious account of the birth 

          of Jesus from the Bible.

• Write an encouraging note to each family member and put it in his or her stocking. 

          It is heart warming to receive a love note from each other on Christmas morning.

• Give only three presents per child. 

          We have, from the time our children were very little, shared with them the story of the three wise 

          men that brought their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to Jesus.  By giving this way we are

          taking the focus off all the "getting" and placing it on the true reason for the season...Jesus!

• Open one gift on Christmas Eve. 

          This signifies to them that Jesus was the one true gift to the world.  

As a side note...we don't celebrate Santa....GASP!!!!  Honestly, we just never made Santa our focus during Christmas.  Our children never even thought twice about it until they went to school.  They came home telling us how some of their classmates became argumentative and upset when our children innocently told them that Santa wasn't real.  Oh my!  We had often read the true story of Saint Nicholas to them, which satisfied and answered their questions.  The modern day Santa Claus originated from these true accounts of Saint Nicholas and his good deeds.  Needless to say, they weren't too concerned by the "hubbub" at school.  However, we did tell them to kindly respect the opinions of others and to not argue about this delicate subject.  

I asked them not long ago if they felt cheated in any way by not celebrating Santa.  My oldest (who is now 14) frankly replied, "No, why in the world would I have wanted that kind of disappointment when I found out he wasn't real?"  Therein lies why I just couldn't acquiesce to the tradition of Santa.  How could I, for most of their early years, persuade them to believe in a Santa whom I knew was not real and in the same breath convince them to believe in a physically invisible Jesus who is real?  That just didn't make sense to me.  Hebrews 11:1 says "Now Faith is the assurance (the confirmation) of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality (faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses)" AMP.  I wanted Riley, Rachel, and Ben to grab hold of Jesus with all their heart while trusting and believing that what we told them was true.  

Unfortunately, many believers today buy into the world's way of doing things and then question why they live a lack-luster defeated life.  I am grateful to the Holy Spirit for showing us another way.  Simply put, we have chosen to celebrate the living Jesus and not a fictitious substitute.  

I hope that our family traditions will inspire you to bring Jesus into your Christmas.  May you have a glorious time with your family celebrating the birth of our RISEN Lord.  

Merry Christmas!