As fall moves into winter, warm breezes turn to chill, I began to sense the anticipation of Christmas. The process of getting to that special day is just as enjoyable as the day itself. Finding joy in the everyday celebrations of December softens my heart with thanksgiving and prepares my heart towards another Christmas morning of remembering the birth of my Saviour.Celebrating Advent is a wonderful way to bring the whole family into this deep worship, deep reflection, and deep joy. Since Christmas is about giving and receiving, I find it important to start with the giving, the focusing of blessing others first.
Our church is doing Christmas boxes to orphans, so that will be our first activity of celebrating the season of Christmas. The kids each put in a few dollars of their own and were allowed to pick what specific item they wanted to buy.
Another opener to the Christmas season is Christmas music. As a fire slowly warms you on the outside, Christmas music warms you on the inside. As the comfort flows, so does the thanksgiving, and as the thanksgiving flows, so does our worship for our God who is the giver of all good things. CBN radio has a great Christmas collection and it is free. When doing Advent, I tend to look for the free or inexpensive things to celebrate with, saving the big gifts for Christmas morning. My goal in Advent is to teach my children the real joy comes in worshipping our God and seeing Him in the everyday and enjoying His presence more than the gifts themselves.
I've been thinking a lot about Christmas lately, and how best to celebrate/prepare. Advent is not a concept I grew up with, and I would love to incorporate that into our traditions, especially when we have children! I would love to see more detailed posts on what you do :)
ReplyDeleteI would love to!
ReplyDeleteYou can plan it to fit your family's lifestyle. Some people write out a detailed schedule, but I just write down a list of ideas and pull out what seems reasonable for that day.
So this year, starting December 1st, might look different from last year.
I will list some inexpensive ideas first and then add as we go. Here is a random list:
~Buy a new Christmas CD and do a devotional around worshipping God through music. (Should be easy for you. ;0)
~Make sugar cookies.
~Make hot chocolate.
~Designate a family gift to an orphan or ministry.
~Read a Christmas story
~Watch Frosty or Rudolph
~Go sledding
~Decorate the tree
~Make Christmas ornaments
~Make Christmas cards
~Make Christmas suncatchers
~Play "old fashioned" or "Little House" Christmas and turn off lights and use candles only.
It's funny, I've done all those things as a child, and yet it was never planned, one a day. I like the idea of doing one thing daily, and emphasizing that it's not just a random fun thing we're doing here, but a special activity to anticipate Christmas Day!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of doing a devotional around Christmas music, and worshiping God through it. Recently I've begun playing pandora radio on the computer in our apartment--Handel, Chopin, Joshua Bell, sacred instrumental...it's something I want to do more of--play music in my house. You'd think I would, because i love music. but I did not grow up with all the tech. gadgets, and did not think to turn it on for myself very often. I'm a person that can be just fine in silence too. But there is definitely a time for music to be played!