Keep Christ in Christmas: 10 Ideas that can Help

Many times I sat with my children to let them know how Christmas is different  in South America. Summer time, 40 degrees Celsius , but all the food from the European winter tradition, 4000 calories each plate. Fake snow in the trees and the nativity set.  Boys from the neighborhood make a 'Jude' with old men's clothes and stuff the large doll with fireworks. They set them on fire in remembrance of his betrayal to Jesus.   The whole  neighborhood decorates the streets and you go house to house to eat and expend time to celebrate Jesus' Birthday with every one of them. 

We don't have Santa, we have Wise Men that bring presents to Jesus, that lives inside of you.

"If Jesus had three presents, why are you supposed to have more?" my mother used to say.

Here in the situation every year I feel that we leave Jesus out of of the panorama, so here are some ideas to make "Jesus the reason of the Season". Lets keep Christ the center of our Christmas.

*Read the Christmas story in Luke 1:5-56 through 2:1-20. Invite your friends and neighbors to be a part of and plan a play. You will be surprised how much your grandchildren and children know about it.

I remember my granddaughter as the wise men telling my husband ‘King Herod’, “And you will not kill the baby!”

* Decorate a Nativity set with your family and read Matthew 2, the only one  to mention the Wise Men ( The Magi) . They came "from the east" to worship the Christ, "born King of the Jews". Even though the story does not tell how many they were, the three gifts lead to a wide account that they were three as well.  Their identification as kings in later Christian writings is probably connected to Psalms 72:11, “May all kings fall down before him”

* Are you putting gifts out for the family? Where did Christmas gift giving come from? If we go back to the first Christmas story when God sent Jesus to earth, we know  that Jesus was given three gifts by the three wise men or Magi, which serve as the inspiration for our entire Christmas gift giving today.

The Magi ( the plural of magus)  offered Jesus with gold, frankincense and myrrh. These gifts were prophetic for they spoke of our Lord us  King, Priest, and Savior.

GOLD:  It's a gift fit for royalty. It says to the Christ child, you will be a King.

FRANKINCENSE: The name for this resin likely comes from incense of Franks is also known as olibanum, which is derived from the Arabic al-lub ("the milk") a reference to the milky sap tapped from the Boswellia tree. Today we call it incense. Ancient people burned frankincense, believing it to take their prayers to heaven. Its use as incense shows  His role as our Priest.

MYRRH: This is perhaps the most mysterious of the Gifts. It is a resin produced by a small, tough, tree that rises in desert of North Africa and the Red Sea. Myrrh is an Arabic word for bitter, and it is considered a wound healer because of its strong .But its most distinguished use to them was that of an preservative used in Egyptian mummies as an embalming balm. It signified that He was born to die for the humankind. In fact, Myrrh was one of the burial spices of Jesus when you read John 19:39.

*Call your church and make plans to be part of the food distribution. If your church does not have one, find one in your neighborhood that have one. Visit Nursery Homes or Hospitals and share the Christmas story with them. Be part of the coat give away.

*Set aside a time of family devotionals every day till Christmas morning. Challenge different members of the family to be responsible for each day.

*Rent a Jesus Christ movie so you can have an evaluation with your family to see how off it is from The BOOK.

*Write a Christmas letter to a missionary, a soldier, to your doctor and to a special person that impacted your life from this year.

*Prepare candy cane cookies and read the story of the Candy

Cane and ask the children to create one with the letter C (of Christ) instead J (of Jesus).

*Give God one very special gift just from you to Him. (Your heart is the best recommended.) Write a Psalm or a love letter to Him. Decorate a birthday cake and ask the family to find different way that Jesus was named in the Bible and choose one for the cake. Send an invitation to HIM   your letter enclosed.

*Separate into two teams to look through the bible and see who can find the names of Jesus and the other to look of the His prophecies 

* When you are decorating the house with light or candles remember the He is the Light of the World, read John 8: 12 

And the most important: 

Celebrate

Jesus

The  Reason Of The Season

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Maria P