Traditions are our friends. They can help keep life’s most important things at front and center.
As a father, I am on the hunt for new traditions for my family for Christmas, in particular. Some recent discoveries:
- The Heitland “Christmas stocking mailbox” – leave encouraging notes in hung stockings throughout Christmas season.
- The Weaver “everybody sleep in the same room on Christmas Eve night”.
- The Borghi “blueberry coffeecake with birthday candles for Jesus”
My favorite traditions with Brenda and the kids has to include the Christmas Eve service with the church and our reading of Luke chapters 1 & 2 while placing nativity figurines in our creche scene on Christmas morning.
Good Christmas traditions serve to point out that the Lord Jesus Christ, his birth as a baby & coming to earth as the God-man Savior, is the sole reason for Christmastime and our only hope and joy all year long.
What Christ-centered traditions fill your Christmas festivities?
Every year we make Christmas ornaments for our tree. It is so much fun every year to pull out the ornaments and oooh and aaah over the ones made when the kids were 4, or 2, or 20 months old! It certainly doesn’t look like it belongs in a magazine, but our tree is beautiful to us.
For the last six years(since I’ve been saved) I have made sure every year that I get one gift “for Jesus”. It is always something that will draw me closer to Him in my daily life throughout that year, whether it be a devotional, a new bible orcsome new worship music. I look forward to continuing this tradition as I get married and start a family. It really helps to keep Christmas in perspective.