4th Day of Christmas - Family Traditions

Oooh...I love traditions. LOVE them! Traditions are a great way to express your love for your family. This weekend, our pastor spoke about creating experiences for your family to remember this Christmas. Think back to your childhood: are your favorite memories gifts or experiences? Traditions are really powerful memory makers.

BUT you can get so wrapped up in traditions that it ruins the fun for yourself and others. Or the mass of ideas overwhelms you and you do nothing.

My challenge for you is to pick a just a few traditions...even ONE if you get intimidated by things like this...and stick with it. Every year. No matter what.

Last year, I begged for ideas for Christmas traditions (to see all of the suggestions, peek at the comments in this post from last December). Ryan was old enough to start picking a few fun ones and I was totally in the mood to bring on the good cheer!

The first tradition I started for my entire family was Pie Night. A friend told me that her family does this and I stole borrowed it and set a date for our Pie Night the next day. Pie Night (for us) will fall sometime between Thanksgiving and early December. Now that my cousins are married with in laws and holiday rotation schedules, I've noticed that there are some years that I don't see certain people except on Easter. Pie Night solves that issue! No big meal to plan around, just pie, games and fun.

Another thing I created a few years after we got married was a Christmas scrapbook. (another idea borrowed from Becky Higgins) Now, don't tune out if you don't scrapbook...this doesn't need to be fancy. Mine is an 8x8 album that highlights my Christmas card (I make them every year), the Christmas letter/highlights for each person and either our family Christmas picture or some choice pictures from the year. It ends up being a "Year in Review" album that I know I'll cherish later in life. And I only need to scrapbook 2 facing pages PER YEAR to keep up this tradition.

This year, I'm looking forward to starting a "Christmas camping" tradition. The idea is to "camp" around the lit Christmas tree the same evening your family decorates it. I know my kids are going to love that!

Another idea I've considered is giving my kids a predictable annual gift. Maybe a new, age-appropriate book for each child. Or new PJs on Christmas Eve that they can open and wear (they look nicer in the Christmas morning pictures than the raggedy, ghetto jammies they've been wearing all winter!) or something along those lines.

Admittedly, I don't think we've done a good job of centering our family Christmas around Christ. But over the last week or so, I've taken note of some great ideas given to us from our church and other Christian sources to bring the focus of Christmas back on Jesus and His birth. Beginning this year, we intend to model the true importance of this holiday for my kids.

Here are some other ideas you might like...

* Throw a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas Eve, complete with candles and singing the birthday song.

* String lights in your child's bedroom or let them decorate a small tree in their rooms.

* Place Christmas cards you receive in a basket near the dinner table. Each night, have a family member select and read a card, then pray for the person who sent the greeting.

* Remove baby Jesus from your nativity scene and "hide" him until Christmas morning. (just remember where you put him or you'll freak your kids out!)

* Take pieces of straw (or even raffia) and tell your family that when you catch them showing kindness, they can place a piece of straw in the manger for baby Jesus. Explain that their acts of kindness help prepare a place for His birth.

* Wrap your front door, your child's bedroom door and/or wrap pictures on the wall in Christmas wrapping paper and a ribbon or big bow.

* Read the Christmas story (Luke 2) to your family before opening gifts Christmas morning or before going to bed Christmas Eve.

Okay, now it's your turn! I want to hear your Christmas traditions. Please leave a comment - others will benefit from your great ideas! You can also post on your blog and paste the web address into the link below.