Christ-Centered Christmas Traditions to Help Your Family Focus on Jesus
Christmas is a busy time…with family gatherings, shopping, cooking and baking, travel, decorating, and so much more! The holidays can easily turn into the most stressful time of the year if we don’t closely guard our time, wallets, and hearts. What is the secret to having a joyful and peaceful Christmas? It lies in keeping our families focused on the miraculous birth of Jesus and the incredible gift that God gave us when He sent us His only Son. By incorporating Christ-centered Christmas traditions into the holiday season it helps us look beyond the tinsel, lights, and busyness to the true meaning of Christmas. Here are some Christ-centered Christmas traditions to help your family focus on Jesus this year:
- Set us a nativity set in your home and use it as a visual aid when you teach your children about the birth of Jesus Christ.
2. Read the story about the birth of Christ and talk about what it means. For younger kids, use a storybook bible and for older kids read together from the Scriptures.
3. Give to others - there are so many ways to do this but here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Bake some treats and deliver to neighbors, or to thank those who serve your community
- Donate clothes or toys to an organization or person in need.
- Volunteer at a soup kitchen or children’s hospital.
- Bless someone with the “The 12 days of Christmas.” As a family, select another family or individual that you feel could use a little bit of Christmas cheer. For 12 days, leave a small gift on their porch anonymously. Kids LOVE doing things like this, especially if they get to prepare the package, or drop it off and run. You don’t have to stick to the song lyrics. Be creative! For example, for an older person you could write “On the first day of Christmas a surprise was left from me: a box of your favorite tea.” or for a family: “On the fifth day of Christmas, we thought it would be sweet to give you some hot cocoa for a treat.”
4. Hang a Stocking for Jesus - Talk about what Jesus would like in His stocking and encourage your kids to write it on slips of paper and put it in the stocking. Read them out loud on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. Some ideas they might come up with include obeying their parents the first time they’re asked, treating others with kindness, sharing with their siblings and showing respect to Mommy and Daddy.
5. Listen to Christmas songs that pertain to the birth of Jesus. These might include Away in a Manger, The First Noel, O Little Town of Bethlehem, O Holy Night, and Born Is The King (It's Christmas).
6. Caroling at a Nursing Home or Hospital - Get a group together and bring some Christmas joy to others. Many of these have very few visitors and you might find they sing along! This is a great way to bring Christmas joy to others; lots of people in nursing homes love it especially when children come along, so this is a great activity for the whole family!
7. Visit a live nativity - Living nativity scenes have become very popular over the last few years, and you can probably find one not far from where you live. Seeing actors playing the characters alongside live animals is a wonderful experience for parents and kids.
We pray these Christian Christmas traditions will help you and your family draw closer to Christ during this busy season. Use these ideas to create joyful and Christ-centered Christmas traditions for your family this year and many years to come!
