Activities that will knit your family together through the Christmas season.
Here are some ideas, activities, and projects that are designed to knit the family together throughout the Christmas season. They range from simple activities to focused projects that require serious commitment. It might be helpful to have your family review the ideas together and choose the ones that they want to implement.
1. Have family members dress in biblical-type clothing and act out the Holy Night for family and friends. (Many young children will love being part of this.) Take photos and use one for next year’s Christmas card.
2. Identify an elderly or low-income person or couple who might not have family support during the Christmas season. Invite them to one of your family gatherings, offer to take them Christmas shopping, or invite them to attend a Christmas church service with your family. You might also take them food gifts over the course of the festive season.
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3. As a family, bake, make, or buy a special gift for your pastor and his family.
4. Keep a Christmas journal expressing your thoughts about what happens throughout the season with your family and friends. Include your reaction to the news, sermons, Christmas programs, parties, and gifts, as well as your meditations about Jesus.
5. Before opening presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, read Scripture aloud together.
Dedicate the occasion to Jesus.
6. Consider the feelings of Mary and Joseph. For older children, read Matthew 1:18-25 and then discuss:
*How could Mary, a virgin, have felt when she discovered that she was pregnant?
*How could Joseph have felt when he learned of Mary’s pregnancy?
*Why did both Joseph and Mary have the courage to believe God and undoubtedly suffer ridicule from man?
*Who do they (and you) turn to when life is not what they anticipated?
*Why can we always trust God even when His ways are different from ours?
7. After the New Year, officially close the Christmas season by having the whole family dismantle your decorations. Give thanks, as individuals and as a family, for the gift of Christ and your time together as a family. This ritual will teach your children to treasure carefully preserved family Christmas traditions.
HAVE A CHRIST- CENTERED CHRISTMAS