Pastor Aaron’s article this month on establishing activities in the home to immerse children in the rhythms of holy time makes some excellent points concerning how to disciple our children by means of forming seasonal liturgies. How fitting it is to think about these ideas during a holy season such as Advent! Is there a season in the year when Christians face a greater threat of “rival liturgies” than at Christmastime?
If your family is anything like mine, you know it can be a struggle to keep Christ the central focus of Christmas. While the typical evils of consumerism, greed, gluttony, etc. all threaten to steal our attention from the incarnate Son of God each year, even the things that aren’t inherently evil – Santa Claus, presents, decorations, shopping, activities, etc. – can so easily undermine a Christian parent’s attempt to make the season holy. After all, the ultimate goal of the Christian parent is not to raise happy kids, but holy kids. So what can we do in the weeks leading up to December 25th that ensure that Christmas morning – and everything that takes place – is all about Jesus?
At the time of this writing, my oldest child is eight years old, which means we have had seven Christmases as a family to think through these issues and implement some ideas. It has not come easy, but we have discovered a few things that have greatly aided us in our attempt to make Christmas all about Jesus which has produced some beautiful moments of worship and joy for our entire family during the Christmas season. Here are just a few.
A Family Advent Wreath
Growing up in the Methodist Church, I remember every year at Advent taking some time each week to light a candle for the Advent wreath during morning worship. A few years ago Rebecca and I decided to try this at home. Each Sunday evening of Advent we take a few minutes as a family to gather around our little wreath to read some Scripture, say some prayers, and, most importantly, light a candle. While it’s seems so simple and mundane, my kids are SO fascinated by this act of worship. There’s just something so visible, tangible, palpable about even the tiniest of flames that cement in a child’s mind and heart that Christ is the light of the world who alone can offer hope, love, joy, and peace.
There’s no one perfect way to do this. We have found Ken Collins’ Advent wreath liturgy to be simple enough for us to do in the home with small children. I would love to hear of any others you might be aware of. Share them in the comments section below.
The Jesus Storybook Bible
Our family’s routine year-round is to have devotion time with the kids each evening before they go to bed (with the exception of Wednesday nights due to how late we get back from church and how crazy/grouchy everyone can sometimes be). Our devotion time consists of reading a passage or story from the Bible, talking about it, and then praying together as a family.
During Advent we love to use the Jesus Storybook Bible as our devotion material. Sally Lloyd Jones has produced an amazing storybook Bible that we absolutely love. While both the artwork and prose are truly beautiful, we particularly appreciate that each story is written to show how everything in the Bible points to Jesus. “Every story whispers his name.” And, ironically, we have found that if you read one story every night beginning on the first Sunday of Advent and only skipping Wednesdays, on Christmas morning you will come to the story that tells of Jesus’ birth! The timing is perfect. We don’t open a single present on Christmas morning until we hear once again the Good News of Christ our Savior.
A Christmas Mailbox
This last activity of ours is a little more on the fun and silly side. My wife came up with this idea a few years ago and our kids go crazy over it. She purchased a cheap little mailbox that she fills with a new “treat” for the kids each day during Advent. The treat can be anything from a little piece of candy to a storybook for us to read together as a family. I think everyone’s favorite “delivery” is a set of tickets to the Polar Express which everyone must have in order to watch that Christmas favorite together during movie night that evening! The sky is the limit for ways you can use the Christmas mailbox idea to make each day of the Christmas season special and unique, and your kids will never forget how excited they always were to find the mailbox flag pointed up.
So there you have just a few of the special things we do each year at Christmas to make the season special and Christ-focused. Of course, we do lots of other things like decorating the Christmas tree, baking cookies, wrapping gifts, and going to all the various events at church. But the goal of all these activities is to establish that “rhythm” of holy time as a family and I can attest to it paying huge dividends in my family’s life together.
We would love to hear the ways that you focus on Jesus during the Christmas season. Share these in the comments section below!
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Love these ideas! We may have to steal a few of them. I found a great website off of Pinterest that gives you a scripture to read each day that corresponds with a letter of the alphabet. So the first day of advent is letter A and we learned about the Angels in our reading. Day 2 was B for Bethlehem, and so on. Here’s the link:
http://talesofbeautyforashes.com/2014/11/advent-abc-scriptures/
In addition to these I took advantage of the public library and have one Christmas themed book for each day of advent. I place the book in a bag and allow the girls to open it. We read the book together, read our scripture and then pray together. It’s been such a precious time together and I’m enjoying this Christmas season more than I ever have.
That’s awesome, Liz. Thanks for sharing your ideas!