The story of Christmas is (and always has been) about how Jesus Christ entered the world. It is a celebration of the time of the year for when the Messiah was born, who would later make the ultimate sacrifice to save use from our sins. And yet today, most people celebrate Christmas as if it is all about receiving gifts, shopping, celebrating idols such as Santa, and getting time-off from work. In doing this, we lose sight of what Christmas means, and when we make the focus of Christmas about getting gifts or relaxing, we are no longer celebrating the Messiah's birth, we are worshipping idols.
This is exactly the opposite of what was intended. As Christians, we need to make Jesus Christ the center of our celebrations so that Christmas isn't just another vacation or for "The Happy Holidays", but it is about what it was meant for: to celebrate Jesus Christ's entrance into the world. And we can do that through some simple and easy ways.
Here are some ways our family Keeps Christ in Christmas
Advent conspiracy: Advent Conspiracy is a movement to return Christ to be central to the celebration of Christmas, replacing the artificial consumerism that Christmas has been made into. The Advent Conspiracy website is a great resource to find ways to return Christmas to be about Jesus Christ and the Advent. Take a look at https://adventconspiracy.org to see all of the great ways that you can do to make Christmas about Christ.
Banish Santa Claus from your household: there are so many reasons for why we don't need to include or celebrate Santa Claus as part of Christmas. When we make a fictional character as the center and focus of the celebrations of Christmas, especially in the mind's of young chioldren, we, as parents, are conveying an emotional lie to our children: that a mythical character exists that will bring you presents every 25th of December. And this lie is being carried generation to generation, as children then continue this lie when they become parents.
We shouldn't do this and there are so many reasons why not:
When our children learn that Santa Claus isn't real and that we have lied to them for many years about something that is so important to a child, they should rightly question everything we've told them. We've created a situation where an older child would think, "What else has Daddy and Mommy lied to me about?"
Along the same lines, involving Santa Claus undermines the belief in Jesus Christ, who was a real person with a history that truly impacted the history of the world . A child has never seen Jesus, and if they have seen depictions of Jesus, especially around Christmas, He is often depicted a lot like Santa Claus. And since Santa Claus has a mythical history, why wouldn't Jesus be a mythical figure also? This is the sub-conscious conclusion that children and adults will come to, operating below the surface, since if Christmas is about Santa Claus and Santa Claus isn't real, then Christmas must really not be about Jesus Christ.
You should be giver gifts to your children, instead of Santa Claus, so that your children know that you are the provider for their happiness. They will look to you as a model and example for what they should do, which is to give gifts in love and sincerity to others.
You don't need the crutch of Santa Claus to teach children to "Be good for goodness sake" (sic). All year around you should be teaching your children to be good for the sake of God and you don't need a special season of the year to do this.
In reducing the importance of receiving gifts, you will make Christmas about what it is intended to be about: the coming of Jesus Christ. And you can still give gifts, because the story of Jesus involves the giving of gifts!
And to the same end, you don't need the Elf of the Shelf, the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, or any other made-up characters to make your holidays better. The story of Jesus Christ with the central person of Jesus is all you need to celebrate, whether it is Easter or Christmas.
We mail Christmas cards that are about Christ and are decorated with nativity graphics to friends and family. Sometimes we do boxed cards and sometimes we do photo cards: either way, we always get the kids involved in decorating them with stickers, colorful written out address labels, and sometimes personalized notes. We also participate in card request campaigns for sick people.
We spend time with friends and family. We have hosted Christmas parties in the past. We make it a priority to keep in touch and meetup with friends throughout the year.
We shop and give things to our kids year 'round. There are many opportunities to buy or get free items. I find things on the "Buy Nothing" pages, thrift stores and things at museum gift shops. Sometimes we give things to them just because. However, sometimes I save them for Christmas, prizes for behavior "sticker charts" and birthdays. It puts less materialism into Christmas since getting toys and things they like or need does not only happen on Christmas.
We do a gift exchange within our family. Our kids will "gift" to their siblings with our help. They may be handmade, used or new. We take them shopping and help our kids wrap them. I make a "store" for our kids to "shop" for gifts with the things I collect throughout the year. They are items that we have already verified as appropriate.
We don't follow trends or fads. "Toy of the year" trends are usually over-rated and will probably be in the thrift store within year or so later. You can buy them then if we really wanted, but is the cost really worth it? The FOMO (Fear of missing out), price gauging and dealing with items selling out is simply not worth the stress. And kids enjoy thrift store items just as much as they enjoy the most expensive "toy-of-the-year".
We do not participate in early morning Black Friday sales. This is a terrible American tradition. We sleep in. We do not deal with packed parking lots, road rage, busy holiday traffic, and long lines at the checkout counter. Black Friday sales also generally available days before and after "Black Friday". When shopping for presents, we can purchase gifts year round on sale, used or free. We are able to purchase things with better judgement and within budget if there is less rush. Last year we spend Black Friday going Ice skating.
We use Amazon wish lists. Our kids are school age. We help the kids shop online and make an amazon wish list. This gives the children a chance to shop and communicate their wishes to our family members in a polite way. We also use these for birthdays.
We don't have a price limit or toy limit when giving gifts to our kids. We use our judgement about what the kids like or need and gift them appropriately. We are intentional about the toys and things we bring into the house and about gifts we give.
We are minimalstic about decorations in general. We do not decorate the exterior of our house for Christmas. All the lights and inflatables, as fun as they are, will have to be purchased, set up, taken town and stored in our home year round. We personally don't think it is worth the time or financial investment.
We visit live nativities. There are ones near us that incorporate live animals.
Giving and kindness is done year 'round not just at Christmas time. We tip well, we buy thoughtful birthday gifts for friends and we are intentional about donating to causes and charitable giving opportunities year 'round.
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