The one with a CHRISTmas

Here's an email I wrote to a friend with some ideas to help Christmas be more centered around Christ:

Hi Di!

This is the topic to get me started on! I'm over-flowing with ideas!!! Hopefully I don't overwhelm you. lol

I LOVE having a birthday dinner for the Savior. Christmas Eve we have a whole feast, our very best dishes, food and of course the Bday cake. We write Bday cards to Him and put them in a special box under the tree, as a gift for Him. When my kids are grown I will give them their own box with their old letters. Maybe they'll keep the tradition going in their own families.

This year I've come up with a new idea. . .haven't done it yet so I can't swear by it- yet. But I was thinking of tying in the 3 gifts He was originally given (gold, frankincense, myrrh) with 3 service-type gifts for Him. (The whole "if you've done it unto one of these. . . you've done it unto me" idea). And then having the theme of each represent one of the gifts. For example, GOLD could be pulling our money in together and then secretly delivering to someone in need. FRANKINCENSE was a spice so it could have something to do with food (serving at the Food Bank, delivering a secret dinner to someone) . . . MYRRH was an incense. . something you feel more than see. . so I'm thinking something like visiting some older widows in the ward, or ? I dunno. I'm still brainstorming here. I think we'll plan the specifics of the 3 "gifts" together as a family on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. . .after we've put up the tree. Just to start out the season on a spiritual theme.

Is this too long already???

I also like to decorate around a Nativity theme instead of Santa/elves/etc. . .

One of the kids faves is our Nativity Advent calendar which puts another character at the manger scene every night.

Another idea. . .I find a story to read to the kids every year, and I always make sure it's got a really good message. We read a little bit (almost) every night and finish sometime around Christmas. They LOVE it and the Christmas spirit feels really strong.

We still do the Santa stuff, but it's just not the focus of the season. And I twist a few of the traditions. For example, instead of the kids writing Christmas wish lists to Santa, we write Thank You notes to him and leave them out with the cookies on Christmas. Trying to spin as much as possible away from the "me, me, me, I want, mine, mine, mine" part of Christmas that leaves us all so empty.

We've been doing the "warm fuzzy jar" from President Monson's conference talk. So we're going to use those warm fuzzy's (pom poms) this year in the manger (similar to the straw in the manger idea)to make it soft for the baby Jesus. We'll read/act out Luke 2 right before going to bed Christmas eve, using the soft manger.

Ok, I'll stop there. I'm sorry to write so much! I didn't mean to, I swear! Hahah. I've got more, if you want 'em. Maybe I'll do a blog post about it one of these days. Or write a book. HAHAHA! What mother has time to write a book!!??! Give me 20 years.

Good luck! Hope you guys are doing great. Talk to you later.