Keeping Christ in Christmas

Thanks to Melodee Parker and Christine Wilson for a great class on Keeping Christ in Christmas. They used the quote from Sherry Dew: "We no longer have the luxury of spending our energy on anything that does not lead us and our families to Christ."

Here are their notes from the class:

Christ Centered Traditions

• Reading/Acting out the nativity story from the scriptures. You could do this as a Family Home Evening right before Christmas or on Christmas Eve.
• Make it a point to watch as a family the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. Make Hot Chocolate or something to get children excited about it and the Spirit will take it from there.
• Have the “25 Books of Christmas” (or 12). Beginning either the first of December or the 12 days before Christmas have 12 – 25 books about Christmas wrapped and let your kids take turns choosing one for the bedtime story each night. You can use books you have, use the local library, even print some online or use your church magazines.
• Center your Family Home Evenings around the birth and mission of Christ in December. You could even hold a FHE as a birthday party for Jesus and bake a cake.
• Display a Nativity Scene
• Advent Calendars are fun.  One take on an advent calendar would be to wrap inexpensive treats (cookies, a Christmas movie or story) for the “12 Days of Christmas” and attach a scripture reference on each describing a gift from Heavenly Father. Each night take turns selecting a wrapped gift and read the scripture and bear testimony of that gift in your lives then open and share the treat together.  
• When decorating your Christmas tree, name and give thanks for gifts from Heavenly Father as you hang each ornament.
• Keep a “Christmas Journal” and write down your hopes and experiences for the Christmas season. Write your thoughts about the savior in it. Write down past experiences and how you have seen the hand of God in your life. Share Christmas tradtions that remind you of Christ.
• Look at artwork or learn about how another culture celebrates the birth of Christ.
• Listen to Christ centered Christmas music.
• Make sure you have a picture of Christ displayed.
• For younger children you could make a “Good Deed” chart and let the kids put stickers each time they do a good deed, or have little bundles of hay (raffia) tied together and each time they do something nice for someone else they can add it to the baby Jesus’ manger.
• Here is a link to a cute Christ centered advent calendar that you can print in color or black and white for the kids to color and laminate. http://lds.about.com/od/visualmusicalaids/a/adventcalendar.htm
• Together, research “Christmases past” in America. Survey Christmas during colonial times, the Victorian era, various wartimes (the Civil War, World War I, and World War II), and the Depression. A slide show or a computer presentation will give the family a historical perspective of America’s Christian Christmas customs.
• Visit the Temple grounds and visitors center. It is beautiful at Christmas time. They usually do a live Nativity there as well.
• On Thanksgiving day start a “Thankful Box’ and place it on a table as the first Christmas decoration. Each day or as often as someone thinks of something they are thankful for have them write it on a slip of paper and put it in the box. On Christmas morning before opening the presents or really any time on Christmas day you can gather together as a family and read them together.
• Ask your children to make a list of the things they would like to give for Christmas instead of a list of things they want to get.

Family Service Projects

• Hang a large Christmas stocking, intended for a designated needy person or family, in a central location. Beginning at Thanksgiving, family members and friends can deposit small gifts and money into the stocking. Close to Christmas, the gifts and money are wrapped and presented to the intended recipient(s). Consider doing this anonymously.
• Identify an elderly or low-income person or couple who might not have family support during the Christmas season. Invite them to one of your family gatherings, offer to take them Christmas shopping, or invite them to attend a Christmas church service with your family. Find out if they have any home repairs that you could help them with or yard work.  You might also take them food or gifts over the course of the season. 
• Christmas carol at a nursing/retirement home or children’s hospital.
• Prepare as a gift a name for Temple ordinances.
• Write to a missionary and let your children make picture for them. You could even send it with cookies or some small gift.
• Offer to babysit for someone who needs to do their Christmas shopping.
• Secret Santa is always fun. Let your children be involved in making treats for a family and secretly deliver together. Make it fun by dressing in black and play or hum the tune to Mission Impossible while you anonymously leave your treats on someones doorstep and run.
• Donate old blankets, towels, sheets or comforters to the local animal shelter. The address and phone number for the Martinez Animal Shelter is 4800 Imhoff Place Martinez 925 335-8300.
• Donate to the Homeless Outreach Program for Education (HOPE) or Foster Youth Services (FYS) within your community.

Inexpensive (or Free) Places to Visit

• Temple Hill lights, events. www.templehillevents.com
• Christmas Creche Exhibit in Palo Alto. www.christmascreche.org. See flyer.
• Neighborhood lights. Make it fun and have everyone wear their PJ’s and drink hot chocolate as you drive around looking at lights.
• Christmas at Ardenwood – 34600 Ardenwood Blvd. Fremont Dec. 3^rd & 4^th www.ebparks.org  See flyer.
• Attend Ward and/or Stake activities throughout the holiday season.
• Ice skating at the Holiday Rink at the Embarcadero Center.

Making Christmas without Breaking the Bank

SIMPLIFY SIMPLIFY SIMPLIFY

• Simplify meals, presents and expectations
• Limit gifts, draw names, set a dollar limit.
• Give gifts of a spiritual nature.
• Focus on “What can I give” rather on “What can I get”
• Donate to the Perpetual Education Fund or favorite cause.
• Give gifts of service. Make them into a coupon book. They could be anything from washing your parents’ car or cleaning out a closet for a sibling or spouse. You could give a surprise gift of service to each member of your family.
• Photo’s in a picture frame or a framed quote.
• Several favorite magazines tied up with a pretty ribbon.
• Organize your wife’s, mothers or sisters recipes into a nice binder.
• Do a specialized gift basket. For example for someone who likes to garden put together a basket with gardening gloves, seeds and small gardening tools. Or a collection of different chocolates for someone who likes chocolate. Or if there is a DVD someone wants, put it in a basket with a box of popcorn or movie candy from the drugstore.  Travel sized toiletries for someone who travels a lot.
• Homemade bread, cookies or other goodies.
• Journal with a personalized note inside.
• Give an “experience” such as a trip to a museum, zoo or salon for a manicure.
• Movie tickets.
• Jar of Self Esteem!
• Give a personal gift of yourself to Heavenly Father. It could be spending more time reading the scriptures, personal daily prayer. Perhaps there is someone in your life you need to forgive or something you need to give up such as caffeine, gossiping or yelling at your kids.