Merry Meaningful Christmas

Christmas Season is here – YES! It’s a whole month to turn our attention to the birth of the most extra-ordinary child. Amazing. Incredible. Breath-taking. Life changing. It’s an optimum time to reflect and an optimum time for distractions too. Nativities & elves, sacred concerts & merchandise, advent & the NBA, family celebrations & wish lists all blend together to make it necessary to sort out the meaningful from the trivial.

While we have attempted to keep Christ at the center of Christmas, unmet expectations have also become stumbling blocks. I know I have been the proverbial scrooge on more than one occasion. The expectation of a “perfect” Christmas makes the day itself particularly susceptible to disappointment. After a few of our Christmas Day’s came crashing down, Diana and I decided to view Christmas as a season of celebration. Along the way we have tried a variety of activities some of which have become meaningful traditions. Here are a few of them with comment:

Decorating the day after Thanksgiving (We always kick the season off the day after…no time for Black Friday)
Advent Readings (This year’s is The Handel’s Messiah Family Advent Reader…we’ve also used Jotham’s Journey and Family Celebrations at Christmas)
Christmas concerts (Lots available from handbell choirs to church cantatas to the Behold the Lamb of God tour…and DQ blizzards afterwards)
Good Samaritan shoeboxes (Gifts for needy children around the world…collections are made before December)
Cookie give away (Dozens and dozens and dozens…showing the love of Christ in a practical way)
Caroling (Old school but good)
Living Nativity (Nothing more fun than being a wise man in the freezing cold…planning one at our house on the 11th)
Christmas breakfast (This one is a carry-over from my childhood)
New ornament each year (Someone gave us a “Your First Christmas Together” ornament, and we’ve added to the collection every year…lots of great memories)
Handmade ornaments (Diana makes four every year…one for us and one to pass along to all the kids)
Devotions in a barn (Borrowed from Michael Card)
Christmas lights drive (The blue “gingerbread house” was our favorite)
Decorating the building where the church meets (Diana and the girls decorated just yesterday)
Reading Christmas stories (The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas by Madeleine L’Engle; The Story of Little Christmas by George MacDonald; One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham; The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry)

"The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it"

Above: Shoebox giveaway in the streets of Mexico
Top: The girls prepare for a cookie giveway