Christmas Traditions?

As Asher is older and understanding and even asking questions about the way and why we do certain things, we're trying to be more intentional about making Christmas purposeful this year. More about Jesus. Less about the junk that is so easy to get caught up in among the hustle and bustle of this wondrous season.

I've started reading this book online, but it should be arriving to my front door any day now. I finally sucked it up and spent $10 of my amazon gift cards (that I redeemed with my Swagbucks) on it. It's been a great read so far. I knew it would be. Several of my friends have recommended it and I mean, John Piper's wife wrote it...so how much more convincing does a girl need?

We don't do Santa. I know. Some of you might be really mad at me right now. It's okay. If I had read that statement just a couple years ago, I would have been mad at me, too. I grew up LOVING Santa and stubbornly believing in him until the 8th grade. I know, ridiculous...but that's the truth. I also played dolls and "house" with my friend, Brittney until that year, too. I just made us very uncool, Brit. Sorry.

I am going to include an excerpt from Heather's (my beloved mentor) post here. The following conveys our personal conviction more eloquently than I ever could (Did I mention that these are our personal convictions? We don't think you're evil if you "do Santa". We won't judge you. Asher knows who Santa is...and that's okay with us...we just don't focus on him.)

From Heather:

There is so much about the Christmas story...so many absolutely true things from scripture...so many good, wondrous, mysterious, life-impacting, miraculous thoughts about Christmas right out of the Bible that we want to ingrain in the minds of our children during the holiday season that we simply don't have time to care about Santa, and quite frankly...the idea of Santa seems small and pales in comparison to everything else we want to bring to life for our children this Christmas.

We want their holiday season to be filled with longing...excitement and anticipation as we remember what it must have been like for the people of Israel to wait for the promised Messiah. We want to focus their hearts and minds on the fact that we are still waiting...right now, longing for the return of our King. He's coming back again!

We want the Christmas story and characters to come to life for them in all of its richness...the wise men, the shepherds...Mary, Joseph...the prophecies that were fulfilled, every last one of them and point them towards a faithful God who keeps His promises. He said He would come the first time and Christmas teaches us that God is faithful. Which means...He is going to come again.

We want to dive into scripture this month and learn about God's character...his love...his servant heart, and then ask the Lord to help us be more like Him.

A million incredible truths...so little time.

To be honest, we feel overwhelmed with how many truths we want to pass down to our kids (year round) but also every December. Trying to add in something like Santa seems silly to us. As a teacher, I find it harder to justify Santa. Our goal is to communicate to our kids during Christmas why we celebrate this holiday...what its true meaning is. As a teacher when I'm teaching anything else, I want my kids to succeed...to learn. I would never try to teach them something complex and add in elements that were not true, or distracted them from the real things I wanted them to know. I wouldn't waste time teaching them things that I was claiming were "unimportant" when there are important things that do need to be taught and taught well in order for them to grasp what I'm trying to teach.

We don't "do the Santa thing" but what I hope we are doing is creating memories in our children's hearts. I pray December is a special time for them that is filled with truth, family, friends...sitting around the fire listening to true stories of mystery, wonder, goodness and grace. I pray they look back and remember our home filled with friends, families, neighbors...light and life.

I pray they remember times in front of the fire, or snuggled up on the couch as we listen to the very breath of God read in our living room.

As if that wasn't long enough (and too beautifully written, might I add) for our little family blog, the entire post is here.

So...all of that to say...I am looking for traditions to implement into the Apel family.

Last year we celebrated advent-which is the 4 week period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of Christ! It encompasses both the arrival of the Christ child and His second glorious coming! Now celebrating advent was not "new" to me; I've celebrated it my whole life, growing up in the Lutheran church. What made celebrating advent completely different for me last year was that we intentionally prepared our hearts daily for the birth of Christ through Scripture readings, songs and prayer as a family.

Kendra (my dear friend and our pastor's wife) put together a great devotional that we'll be following this year. Go look at this post. (She has so many great ideas that I'm going to be stealing and will probably be sharing with your soon.) Originally, we were going to follow the same study the Hendrick's were following since they're our second home, but after comparing them both, we decided that the Duty's schedule was more suitable for our young kiddos. The Hendrick's have three older boys (plus a little guy McKlayne's age) so if you have school-aged children, you may want to check this one out. This one is GREAT.

Intrigued by the thought of doing an advent study, but don't know where to start? Once again, Heather has so gracefully communicated what we're all just figuring out. Read this and this. Don't I have some fabulous resources? By God's goodness, He lead us to a body of wise people that long to be refined by His Word and constantly challenge us to evaluate our life compared to Scripture. We're overwhelmingly thankful for all of the friends that He has given us.

Okay...so if you're still hanging in here...back to the intent of my post: I want to hear what traditions have been special for your family! Whether you're just beginning to implement them or you've grown up with them...please share!

Though we're not "doing Santa" we still want our kids to experience the anticipation, excitement, wonder, awe, and use their imagination and creativity for this most special time of the year as we celebrate our Savior. I found a cute idea (and now, of course, I cannot recall where I found it. I just know that I aimlessly happened upon it...it was a stranger's blog. Yes. I'm guilty of being one of those creepy lurkers.) that I knew my kids would LOVE!

And since I can't find it, I will just have to show you mine. The inspiration...with a few of my own spins:

Gather 25 children's Christmas books.

Wrap them.

And place them in a basket (that normally houses your library books) under your tree. Let the kids choose one book to unwrap and read each day in December.

But wait...there's more.

Designate the Christmas story for the "Do NOT open until Dec. 25" book. Yes, you can see through this paper. Charlie asked why I wrapped it like that. "Because we don't want this story to be kept a secret. It's the greatest story ever told. We want everyone to be able to know about it."

And how do you go about finding 25 non-Santa Christmas story titles, you ask? You use those resourceful friends.

Ones that you really know, like Kendra:

Read Christmas Books – books we like or that have been recommended to us:

Who is Coming to our House? By Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolff
B is for Bethlehem by Isabel Wilner
Alabaster Song by Max Lucado
One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathon Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski
The Legend of the Christmas Tree by Rick Osborne
The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg
Jacob’s Gift by Max Lucado

And ones that you know but that don't know you, from blogland...this is her recommended book list.

I had about 8 that we already had or that I'd acquired over the year at various garage sales or thrift stores. Then I checked more out from the library. Who knew that we'd have such a fine selection? Plus, I have a few coming with that Noel Piper book from Amazon and even more that I have on reserve at the library.

I will be making a list of the ones that we really like that I can be on the lookout for at garage sales to add to our permanent collection....as I am hoping this will be a tradition that we continue for years to come!

I found this one last night. I may need to buy me...I mean, Asher an early Christmas gift. It just looks so cute:

Any cute books that you can either confirm from the list? Or one that you love that is not listed? I'd love to know some that you recommend!

And. Please. Give me any tradition ideas. I'd love to hear. I will be posting more of our plans shortly.