I love Christmas. I’m a complete Christmas geek. I love it all – the tree, the decorations, the twinkly lights. We watch every Christmas show. We listen to Christmas songs all day. We really get in the spirit.
Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the lessons the girls are learning about Christmas. I find myself torn. I want them to experience all the magic and the wonder. And I also want them to know the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Sometimes the cultural idea of Christmas and the religious idea of Christmas see so far away from each other that it can feel impossible to merge them.
I recently read an article where a woman compared Advent to nesting for a newborn baby, but instead of labor and delivery, we are nesting for Christmas. I liked this idea. It took all my favorite parts of Christmas and it infused them with more meaning. And to be honest, it reduced a lot of stress. Instead of rushing to get decorations up as soon as possible and to keep everything clean and pretty, I focused on preparing my home for Christmas, preparing the gifts we were given so that we can thoroughly enjoy them when Christmas Eve comes.
This is only the second Christmas Eve that we have not been invited to celebrate with anyone, and I am looking forward to starting some Christmas Eve traditions as a nuclear family. One of my favorite parts of Christmas growing up was Christmas Eve. I remember our house glowing with the lights and overflowing with the scent of the tree. I remember how cozy everything felt with those I loved most all around me. It felt like we had our own little Christmas wonderland where we could block out all of the chaos of the outside world and just celebrate and love.
That is what I want for my girls.
So we plan to go to Christmas Eve mass tomorrow. And then we are going to come home and have a birthday party for Jesus. We are going to bake Him a cake, and we are going to sing “Happy Birthday.” I am going to make a big roast beef dinner and we are going to sit down to the table with our heirloom candle sticks that always remind me of those who have come and passed but who still are very much alive in my memory and my heart. I think I might even break my no sewing rule and make us a pretty Christmas table cloth.
The thing that has been keeping me stumped is the gift we can give to Jesus for his birthday. I liked the idea of buying something for kids less fortunate, but I really want it tied in with His birthday, and charities already have all their Christmas gifts collected and distributed by then.
And then today I came across the idea of creating blessing bags for the homeless. The kids then put them in a huge box and unwrap them on Christmas Eve for Jesus. This sounded like an excellent idea, but we don’t ever come across homeless people.
But I loved the idea of collecting things in a big box, and I loved the idea of giving to Jesus by giving to the least among us. After all, we clothe Jesus by clothing the poor; we serve Jesus by serving those in need. After all, “what you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me.”
Since it is just one day and we can’t heal the world in one day, I figured we would get a box and a bunch of paper and write down the things we have done for those in need around the year. A collection, of sorts, of all of the gifts we have given during the year. This isn’t meant as a pat on the back for us. Rather, I am hoping the girls can see just how much our little gifts can add up over the course of months and years. I hope it inspires them to live lives of giving and service. I hope it teaches them that God becomes more fully alive in this world when we act out our faith to those most in need.
I’m not sure how it will work. The little two are probably too little to get much out of it, but I’m excited to try it.
Often I feel like my Christianity is cerebral. I focus on it. I do my very best. But often it feels more in my head than in my heart, and this leaves me feeling lacking, like a fraud of sorts. I don’t think this will really help it much, but the only other alternative is to give up, and I surely don’t want to do that.
So for now, I am signing out and saying Merry Christmas to all of you and your loved ones. I hope you experience the magic and wonder of the season. I pray the day wraps you in peace and love and all of the blessings that are as timeless as the sun.
These stockings are sentimental to me because they remind me of one of the only times in my life that I was able to sew with my sewing machine and not end up screaming, swearing, and crying at it. The dog and cat have ones too, but those are on different walls.
This wreath was one of my first Pinterest attempts a couple of years back. I made three. Unfortunately the other two have not survived storage.
These snowflakes were time consuming but really fun to make. I’m hoping to make a lot as ornaments for next year.
And this is what I made yesterday. It was my first attempt at fair isle knitting, and while it is far from perfect, I’m pretty proud it. Ironically, I just looked up at my tree to realize that it is gone. We have an ornament thief in this house. She is little. And cute. And sneaky.
My sister sent this to me. It made me smile. The girls love how it is sparkly. I like how the coffee cup even has a cup holder like the ones I knit.
Can you tell we have two toddlers in our home? Very few ornaments under three feet!
