Family Christmas Traditions- Slow down and enjoy them.
Posted by Michelle Osborn on
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Family Christmas Traditions
If your kids are like mine, there are certain things that you have to do EVERY Christmas. Maybe it's a favorite cookie recipe to bake, a certain ornament to hang on the tree, or something like singing Christmas carols. Whatever traditions you and your children enjoy, be sure that many of your traditions center on remembering Jesus' birth. Take advantage of advent calendars or other ways to remember that special night when Jesus was born. (Gena Suarez)
As the 2016 Christmas season unfolds before us, there can be many competing pressures, including:
- Extra demands--Christmas shopping, baking, sewing, cleaning, decorating, hosting--on an already overwhelming schedule;
- Memories for your kids--doing Advent calendars, wrapping presents, making cards, seeing Christmas lights, watching the Nutcracker, reading the Christmas story, warming spiced apple cider, singing Christmas carols, visiting nursing homes--while physically exhausted, financially strapped, and/or emotionally struggling;
- Others who seemingly do it all--everything listed in the previous two points--who make you feel like a failure with their energy, money, and happiness (though I can promise you that things are NOT as they seem);
- Trying to focus on the real reason for the season--the birth of the Savior of the world--in the midst of the flurry of activities.
As I considered today's topic, "Christmas Traditions," I realized that these pressures I've suggested from my own experience might just be the only "tradition" you experience as a homeschool mom.
If that's you, then I have a new tradition to suggest--one that doesn't add another burden to your shoulders, doesn't require more money, doesn't demand you pick yourself up by your bootstraps and get it done. It may sound too simplistic for your 21st century ears, but I encourage you to let this word resonate for awhile in your soul before you dismiss the possibilities.
The new tradition is ENJOY what you're doing.
- Take the time to simply enjoy being with your family this Christmas.
- Slow down, be aware of, and enjoy the specific tastes and smells of the Christmas season, like spiced apple cider and the woodsy pine scent of a Christmas tree.
- Listen to the music that speaks most deeply to you in this season, and enjoy every bit of it.
- Be childlike in your delight of surprises, of colored lights, of treasured stories that are read each year at Christmas--take them in and enjoy them with all your heart.
- Give to others in the way you and your family enjoy--singing Christmas carols, bringing gifts of food, spending time with those who you don't often have the chance to see.
- Enjoy the reflective time you have in the Word, and then share with your children the wonder of God's fathomless love in the advent of Jesus.
Just as it is with our homeschooling endeavors--the quality of what we do will bear more fruit than the quantity of what we do--so it is with Christmas traditions. Get off the hamster wheel and enjoy the incredible gift of Christmas.
And, in all of this, remember to stay relational!
Merry Christmas,
Diana
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- Tags: Children, Family, Holidays, Homeschool, Motherhood
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