Category: Advent

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Christmas Traditions: Manufacturing Memories

What are your favorite memories of the holidays as a child?

More than likely those memories include family traditions from, the day you choose to decorate your tree, to the kinds of food you eat at the holidays.

Remember that you and your husband came from separate families with different customs and traditions.

When creating a legacy for your children, it is appropriate to use a couple traditions from each of your families and come up with some new ones for your own family. Don’t try to do them all or you’ll end up feeling overwhelmed rather than enriched. Here are some ideas.

  • Kick off the holiday season by attending an event every year. Some suggestions are: The Festival of Trees, attend a play such as A Christmas Carol, or a Christmas concert.
  • Together, bake a cake on Christmas Eve for Jesus to remind you whose birthday you are really celebrating. Light a candle and even sing “Happy Birthday” to Him.
  • Sound, smells and tastes can certainly bring back fond memories of past Christmases. The sound that is Christmas to me is Johnny Mathis’s Christmas album, which my mother played each year and I still adore now.
  • The food that means “holiday” to me is this frozen fruit salad recipe. We had it almost every holiday season. What are the sounds, smells and tastes that evoke your Christmas memories? Include those as part of your family’s traditions.
  • This tradition was submitted by Marilyn Brina:
    On Christmas morning, the youngest child goes in and opens his stocking. The the other children go in and open their stockings all while Dad is taking movies of us. Then Dad hands out each gift and we all watch as each gift is opened. Then after the gifts are opened, we eat scrambled eggs, sweet rolls and hot chocolate for breakfast.
  • There are several books of compiled Christmas short stories available in bookstores and libraries. Read to your family each night before bedtime.
  • On the first day of December read to your family “The Giving Tree”, by Shel Silverstein. As a family, make an advent calendar in the shape of a tree and determine 25 “gifts” you can share with neighbors, relative, teachers, and friends. The gifts could be things such as shoveling snow from a neighbor’s walk, visiting a widow, taking homemade bread to someone. Write each gift on a separate “leaf” and attach it to the tree. Number the leaves from 1 to 25. Each day during December, turn over the corresponding leaf on the calendar and give whatever “gift” is listed there.
  • Use your children’s artwork (which most families have in great abundance) to decorate wrapped packages. Your children will feel pride in the fact that their work is contributing to the holiday decorations.
  • Each Christmas of my childhood we would go “Santa Clausing”. My dad dressing up as Santa we children would dress as elves or reindeer. We would then deliver plates of Christmas goodies to friends and neighbors as we caroled. And of course, Santa had a candy cane in his bag for each child he encountered.
  • Give a new ornament to each child each year. Store each child’s collection in a special box that he can take with him when he leaves the nest. Not only will it give your child a few ornaments to decorate his tree, but it will be a reminder of past Christmases.
  • Take lots of pictures throughout the holidays. Each year create several new scrapbook pages that can be put into a special Christmas scrapbook album. It is wonderful to have out at holiday family gatherings for everyone to enjoy!
  • Several years we have been on the giving and the receiving end of “The 12 Days of Christmas”. Pick an individual or family that may be having a difficult holiday season, or that you just want to friendship. Each night anonymously leave a small gift with a note or poem on the receivers porch. (It can be exciting and tricky trying not to get caught 12 nights in a row!)
  • Another option is to compile the 12 gifts all at the same time. Be sure they are small and lay them on a 4 to 5 foot piece of colored plastic wrap. Enclose gifts in wrap and make a long rope separating each gift with ties of ribbon. Each night the receivers can cut off a new gift, and you only have one chance of being caught!

Use traditions to create lasting happy memories for your family that can be looked forward to every year.

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About the Author:
Teresa Hansen is the creator of Moms Making It! www.momsmakingit.com sharing creative ideas to save time, save money, and enrich your life! She is a wife, and mother of five children, and always looking for new ideas and products for moms “making it!” Get “Christmas Neighborhood Gift Ideas” ebook FREE by signing up for the newsletter at her site.

Article Resource: www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: www.isnare.com/?aid=354&ca=Family+Concerns
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A Poem For Christmas

We remember the birth of a babe this day,
born in a stable, his bed filled with hay,
heralded by angels and searched for by kings
but whose life would be full of much simpler things.

His mother, Mary, a woman of faith and trust,
His father, Joseph, a carpenter, honest and just –
for although nigh to Mary he had not been
God told him to take her to wife, in a dream.

And so they were wed and began their life,
Joseph – the carpenter – and Mary, his wife.
And came the time close when her confinement would be
and out of Judaea there came a decree.

A census was ordered, taxation was due,
families must, to the towns, of their births, return to,
and so to unto Bethlehem Joseph did start,
with Mary, a donkey, and his own heavy heart.

The town was so full with those who had returned
refreshment flowed heavy and the lighted lamps burned,
yet despite diligent searching, Joseph found not a bed
for Mary, his wife, and his heart filled with dread.

A lowly innkeeper took pity on the pair
although he had no room that they might share,
but showing a stable said it was all that he had
and for that they were thankful and exceedingly glad.

And that night was the night our Lord was born,
under twinkling stars before the dawn,
in a lowly stable in Bethlehem
he came to save the world of men.

In fields, the shepherds a vision saw,
angels sent them to see the babe in straw,
and three kings travelled from far away,
to worship their new born king that day.

And from that first Christmas, stemmed love divine
a love so pure to last all time,
for God’s only son was born you see
To die for the sins of you and me.

God’s greatest gift, his only son,
as seers had foretold, to this world did come.
and so we remember the birth of a babe this day
born in a stable, his bed filled with hay,
heralded by angels and searched for by kings
but whose life would be full of much simpler things.

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About the Author:
Rose Dempsey has been writing poetry most of her life and has been published in various anthologies, Poetry Now magazine, church bulletins and newspapers. She lives in SC with her husband and a menagerie of goats, chickens, cats, dogs, guinea fowl and a house full of foster kittens

Source: http://www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=12103&ca=Poetry=============================================

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The Right Attitude Toward Christmas

Let me paint you a picture. There is a Bible laying on a table in the corner, a Nativity standing in another corner, and Silent Night is softly playing on the stereo. It is December 24th and the Jordan-St. Clair family is setting around the fireplace. The children, Karen, Keith, and Kelly, are talking about what they think they’re getting for Christmas. Mom is humming to herself while playing a game on the computer, and Dad is reading while quietly watching the children, chuckling to himself. Let’s go in closer and listen to this family’s conversations.

“I know what Kelly got you for Christmas, Keith, but I’m not gonna tell you! Ha! Ha! Ha!” says Karen.  “Aw, come on, Karen. Tell me!”  “Karen, don’t you dare tell him or I won’t take you shopping with me ever again” says Kelly. “Kelly, you know I promised not to tell, and you know I keep my promises. I’m not gonna tell.”

“Is it something I can wear, or is it something I can play with?” “I’m not gonna tell you, so you might as well stop asking.” “That’s alright – I know what I’m getting anyway. So there… you don’t have to tell me. And I know what Karen is getting too!”

Karen looks up and says, “Oooh! Tell me!” “I ain’t – unless you tell me what Kelly got me” “Don’t you…” “Don’t worry, I won’t. Keith, you’re just gonna have to wait until tomorrow to find out.”

“Alright kids,” says Dad. “That’s enough. Let’s sing a Christmas carol and have our Christmas Bible lesson. Now what do you want to sing? Karen?” “Aw Dad,” says Keith, “she always gets to pick what we sing.” “Well, Keith, what do you want to sing?” “I don’t know”, answers Keith, with a grimace and a shrug. Everyone laughs. “Well, since you don’t know, I guess Karen has the best choice. What do you want to sing this time, Karen?” “Let’s sing “O come All Ye Faithful.” “Mom, start us off.”

“O Come All Ye Faithful, Joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold Him, Born the King of Angels; O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.”

“Dad,” says Mom, “instead of having our usual Bible reading, why don’t we each tell what Christmas means to us? Keith, why don’t we start with you?” Keith responds, “Well, it means a vacation from school and new games and lots of football on TV and lots of food.” “It means I get lots of toys to play with”, says Karen. “I get to sleep late and get new clothes”, says Kelly.

“Mom, your turn.” “Well, kids, Christmas means more than a lot of toys and gifts. Christmas is the time when people should be remembering that it is the time when the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, came into the world as a baby. Dad, why don’t you read that passage in Luke 2?”

“That’s a good idea. Hand me my tablet. This year, I’m going to read from the Message version.” Keith jumps up and gets Dad’s tablet and hands it to him. Dad quickly flips to Luke 2, and clears his throat.

“About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.”

“Hmmm,” says Karen, “then, we should not consider ourselves but think of Jesus Christ.” “That’s right”, says Keith. “I’m gonna try and remember that from now on” Kelly chimes in, “Me too. Im gonna tell all my friends about it too so they will know.”

I think that each of us should consider and remember the message that the Jordan-St. Clair family learned today and apply it to ourselves.

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ, the Saviour is born
Christ, the Saviour is born

Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth