As Christmas approaches, it's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping, festive decorations, and the excitement of Santa Claus. As my kids are getting older and starting to understand the holiday, I wanted to be sure they weren’t getting caught up in Santa and the gifts and understand why it’s a holiday in the first place. Here are a few things I do to help bring the focus back onto Jesus and less about the gifts under the tree.
Advent Candles
I remember growing up my mom would get my sister and me those little chocolate advent calendars from the dollar store, and it was so exciting to count down the days to Christmas. We typically do one of those Trader Joes chocolate advent calendars, but I wanted to do the Advent candles too that you typically see in churches. You light one candle each Sunday until Christmas and talk about the different meanings. We typically eat by candlelight at dinner, so this is a fun and easy way to incorporate it into our holiday routine.
Advent Candles | Advent Wreath
Nativity Scene & Shepherd on the Search
Setting up a Nativity scene is a classic Christmas tradition I had growing up, but I haven’t found a nativity scene that I love yet. I’m still on the hunt, but I’ll let you guys know when I find one. I would love to have my kids help set it up while we set up the tree and let them play with the figurines like they would a Barbie. While I’m on the hunt, I bought Shepherd on the Search. It’s like Elf on the Shelf, but you guessed it – it’s a shepherd trying to make his way to Jesus rather than a creepy Elf reporting if you’re naughty or nice to Santa. And let’s be real here, am I going to move it around for the kids to find every single night? Absolutely not. It’s just another fun little activity that’s focused around Jesus rather than Santa.
Christmas Books
I keep a handful of Christmas books around the house and try to put away the other books in storage while it’s the holidays. We read a lot of kids' books in our house, and this makes it an easy and fun way to incorporate the story of Jesus. I usually thrift or borrow from the library, but here’s my list of kid-friendly Christmas books. We have Santa books thrown in there as well, but the majority are about Jesus’s birth.
Santa Claus
This one might be a bit controversial, but we don’t really do Santa. We don’t, not not do it, but we just don’t make a big deal of it. The kids don’t get gifts from Santa, and in reality, they open them too fast to even realize who it’s from. At this stage, it doesn’t matter to them – a gift is a gift. We also don’t go visit Santa at the mall and take photos or write letters to him. We have so many other fun activities planned from our Holiday Bucket List that it’s not missed. If Santa gets brought up in conversation, we say something like, “Santa was a man who lived a long time ago and people like to celebrate the tradition of him” rather than them genuinely thinking a man comes down the chimney at night. We also tell them that other people believe that, and that’s okay, and not to ruin it for them. To be honest, this isn’t much of an issue in our house because of how many other activities there are and things going on.
Service Projects and Acts of Kindness
I’ve been really focusing on showing my kids how to give back. I have things we do throughout the year but really try to drive it home during the holidays. We always do an angel card from the Christmas tree at the store, we donate toys, and we make treats for our neighbors. I always try to bring the conversation back to how doing these things is what Jesus did and what he preached. My favorite one this year was creating bundles for a food drive.
What are some of your favorite ways to keep the focus on Jesus during Christmas? Share in the comments below! And don't forget to check out the links for some fun, faith-focused holiday ideas.