Hi friend!
Keeping Christ at the center of our Christmas is essential, so we have been thoughtfully discussing and implementing how best to do this with our children each year. We decided a few years ago once Collins got to an appropriate age that we will not be pretending Santa is real. For many reasons, but mostly because we don’t see the necessity of it in order to experience the true joy of Christmas, which is found only in Christ and the true meaning of the season.
Although we both grew up doing Santa and enjoying it, we both feel that the works-based, “Santa’s watching… therefore, be good” is confusing to our children who we are trying to teach the importance of grace to. Teaching grace on its own is difficult, even to an adult, so to add in something that is quite opposing to what grace is around the Christmas season, doesn’t seem helpful to us as parents or to the children God’s entrusted to us.
Now, does that mean that because you celebrate Santa you’re not a Christian? Certainly, not! I think there are a lot of Christians who do the Santa thing and keep Jesus at the center of Christmas, but for us, God has convicted us in such a way to not do Santa. God convicts people in different ways on third-level issues of the conscience… like homeschooling, music choices, movie and TV choices, celebrating certain holidays like Halloween, dressing in certain types of clothing… Santa, Easter Bunny… those types of issues are on the third-level of consciousness (different topic for a different day when discussing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd levels of consciousness)! Now, if we were discussing whether or not you believed that Jesus died on a cross to save you from your sins (1st level example), whether you believe scripture is God’s word and your authority, or the trinity (1st level examples)… then there’s no wiggle room for discussion there. You either are or you aren’t when it comes to first-level issues such as these, but Santa… now that’s different. So please, know that whether you celebrate the season with Santa or not… I’m not saying you are or are not a Christian! This is just the plan that seems to make most sense to us. Now, does that mean we won’t watch the fun movies like The Polar Express or Elf? Not sure. Does it mean we won’t read stories or sing fun songs that reference Santa? Not sure. It does mean that keeping Christ at the center of the season is our focus, so we plan to make less of a big deal about Santa and make the biggest deal out of celebrating the birth of our savior, Jesus!
God is sovereign, and I trust that He can work in and through our children’s hearts far greater than any “plan” or “traditions” we set around Christmas, therefore, we plan, but we don’t cling to the salvation of our children’s souls to that plan- to our plans for them. THE plan is already sorted out by God for them! SO- here’s how. At least for this year (updated this post Nov 2021)! We have some things we’re keeping from previous years and adding in some new ways to celebrate this year! For us as husband and wife to prepare our hearts with one another, and for our children. I like mixing it up a bit, and I think giving yourself grace to change up traditions to keep it exciting and also do what’s working for your family (and change it when it’s not!) is important to do and recognize. If it isn’t working, change it. If it is, keep it! Simple as that. So, here you go!
f o r u s . . .
Come Let Us Adore Him Daily Devotional
By: Paul David Tripp
We have done this devotional for the past theee years, and really enjoy it, so we will probably be doing this again. Short (2-3 page) devotional, and at the end it has a for children and parents activity/question to draw out the meaning of the text/devotional for the child and make it relatable to them! Dakota and I are doing this primarily for and with one another, though! Each devotional walks through the story of Jesus’ birth, but relates back to the big picture of the gospel, and I really love that about this devotional.
The Dawning of Indestructible Joy Daily Devotional
By: John Piper
This is a daily reading by one of our favorite authors, John Piper. We have not read this during advent yet, so we will either jump into it this year (totally still worth doing this year if you haven’t got a plan/advent reading yet!), or we will wait until next year and just stick with the Come Let Us Adore Him devotional! The main focus of these devotionals though, is that God would use the meditations to deepen and sweeten your adoration of Jesus and help you keep him at the center of your Christmas season. Sounds like a great thing to pick up at any point during the advent season, and every season. 🙂
By: John Piper
A new devotional from Piper last year, 25 brief devotional readings meant to sweeten and deepen your adoration for Jesus leading up to Christmas day!
f o r t h e m . . .
Is It Time Yet? A Family Advent Journey
By: Bethany Darwin & Jedidjah Rotter
We ordered this family devotional last year to do together after a friend of ours shared about it on her Facebook page and recommended it! Here’s a little more about the book, taken from the Amazon Description:
“Is It Time Yet: A Family Advent Journey” is a storybook and family worship guide designed to walk your family through the storyline of the Bible in anticipation of the birth of Christ. As you journey from the first promise of rescue after the Fall, and through all the familiar stories of the Old Testament, children will be reminded that the Rescuer came at just the right time. With daily readings and hands-on activities, children will see how the whole Bible points to Jesus coming into the world to die on the cross for our sins.
This 62-page full-color storybook perfect for read-aloud in the days leading up to Christmas. In this book, you’ll find 25 stories meant to be read 1 per day, December 1-25.
Each story stands alone, but together they tell the overarching story of the Bible, help children to see that Jesus came at just the right time, and remind us each day that Christmas is more about Jesus on the cross than Jesus in the manger. Each story ends with the question, is it time yet? to connect children to the gospel each day.
Along with the hardcover book, you’ll receive a code to download a Family Devotional Guide (from the Sunday School Store). The devotional guide includes 25 days of devotions with Scripture reading, discussion questions, suggestions for using the pictures in the book for discussion, and two activities (one for younger children – age 2-7 and one for older children – age 8+).
Very excited to jump in to this on December 1st! We will probably utilize this as a reading at night in conjunction with the Advent Blocks reading in the morning.
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This is a new advent devotional we are doing for the first time this year! This wood box and hardback book version of Advent Blocks are meant to be kept and used as a tradition for years to come. They have a few different sets to choose from, but below is a list of what one of the set includes:
The Traditions Set of advent blocks comes with:
- 27 – 1.5 inch beech blocks with rounded edges (in full color or white and gold)
- Hardback version of The King Is Coming, our 25-day guide, with a red placekeeping ribbon
- Natural wood finish, sliding top wood box
These are tangible (love anything hands-on/tangible for little ones!), easy to use (takes about 5 minutes to complete each day), and beautiful all lined up somewhere in your home. Each day you move the star block above that day in December and on the last day, you turn over the blocks to reveal a secret message! We are excited to anticipate Christmas this year with these beautiful blocks at the center of our home up on the mantle for years to come!
Similar to having a tree set up somewhere in your home, Dakota thought of the idea to have a large manger set up somewhere in the house, and I loved that idea. When you click the link, you’ll see it is a “livestock feeder” and is used for a plethora of other things… 🙂 BUT- one of the examples is to be used as a manger for Christmas. We loved how realistic it looks, plus it is natural, so if you wanted to stain or paint it later on, you could to make it your own style! We started doing this in 2018 (feels like a decade ago with the past year we’ve had!) for the first time and Collins LOVED it! We bought two of these cute 5 foot pencil trees to put on either side of it, and hung a big shining star over the manger that we hung with twine from the top of one tree to the other, and Collins and I made the star together using yellow construction paper and added some gold glitter to it! She really loved doing that. We also bought a small pack of “nativity hay” to put in the manger (a little messy, but they stayed out of it for the most part last year).
On Christmas morning, we wrapped up one of her baby dolls in a white kitchen towel and we got her excited by telling her that on Christmas morning, we will go to see if baby Jesus is in his manger! They just loved doing this, and it was the first thing she did Christmas morning. We also sang Hark! The Herald Angels Sing together as a fam, which is really fun! 🙂 We just sang the first verse and chorus, but it was a sweet (and fun!) time to worship together the joy of Christmas! We loved it and so did they. Excited to do this again now that T is a little older! 🙂
By: Allison Hottinger & Emily King
This is our fourth year doing this (2021), and we really love doing this as a fam every year! The main idea behind this is to focus on the giving aspect of the season, while serving others. As you serve others throughout the season, you fill and prepare the wooden manger with a piece of straw. On Christmas Day, baby Jesus goes into the manger, filled with the straw that your family has filled by giving and serving one another and points us to the greatest gift we receive on Christmas, the savior of the world! You can still get the whole set and do it with your family this advent season, too! One thing Dakota and I talked about is that with this, it will be important to not have it become just another works-based tally to “be good to receive gifts”, but rather to thoughtfully think about ways we can serve one another that are relatable to Collins and Tommy right now and as they grow. Hottinger + King suggest as a family making a list of thoughtful ways that you could serve during the Christmas season, and I think that will be a great way to combat the urge to just “do it to fill the manger” mentality children can very easily make something like this to be! It’s been fun to see how engaged she is with it, and when I moved the manger + baby Jesus when we first received it, she immediately asked when she got downstairs from her nap where they were… I haven’t moved them since ;).
The Wonder of the Greatest Gift: An Interactive Family Celebration of Advent
By: Ann Voskamp We did this for the first time last Christmas (2018) for an advent calendar! I saw this on Amazon and immediately was drawn to the pop-ups in the daily stories to share with your child during advent, and how interactive it is. Collins and Tommy also loved doing this, and often wanted to read the next devotional and open up the next day on the advent calendar to put a new present ornament on the pop-up tree. I loved how every morning, it kept the focus on the meaning of Christmas before us every single day as we started our day! We still may bring this out just so they can put the ornament on the pop up tree each day, but we will be doing the reading from the advent blocks resource this year for Advent, and wanted to share this resource again this year even though we won’t be doing it, because some of you may enjoy this resource!
Names of Jesus Ornament Family Devotional
By: Day Spring
I thought this would be another great interactive family devotional to do with your kids if you don’t care for the Ann Voskamp or Advent Blocks set. This devotional focuses on all the names of Jesus – Messiah, Immanuel, Light of the World, Jesus… and for each day there is a short devotional to do with your family and at the end, a paper ornament that your little ones get to take out of the book and hang onto your tree. I haven’t done this one myself, but it sounds like a similar layout to the one above by Ann Voskamp! You could also hang them on something else, too like your stair railing, or if you made your own clothespin banner to decorate your mantle with these or somewhere else in your home! Lots of options of what to do with the ornaments aside from hanging them on your tree! 🙂
s u p p l e m e n t a l r e a d i n g . . .
By: St Athanasius
I heard JT English, Pastor and host on one of my fav podcasts, Knowing Faith Podcast, share this last year and he did a mini IG live series going through each chapter of the book and I am ordering it this year to read as a supplement to my own advent devotional reading. A classic of Christian theology, composed by Saint Athanasius in the fourth century, expounds with simplicity the theological vision defended at the councils of Nicaea and Constantinople: that the Son of God himself became “fully human, so that we might become god.” Its influence on all Christian theology thereafter, East and West, ensures its place as one of the few “must read” books for all who want to know more about the Christian faith.
By: Timothy Keller We read through this last year, and excited to revisit it again! I enjoy how Timothy Keller takes the story of the nativity that even non-Christians seem to “know” and gets to the tough questions and hard edges of this familiar story. “Even people who are not practicing Christians think they are familiar with the story of the nativity. Every Christmas displays of Baby Jesus resting in a manger decorate lawns and churchyards, and songs about shepherds and angels fill the air. Yet despite the abundance of these Christian references in popular culture, how many of us have examined the hard edges of this biblical story? In his new book Timothy Keller takes readers on an illuminating journey into the surprising background of the nativity. By understanding the message of hope and salvation within the Bible’s account of Jesus’ birth, readers will experience the redeeming power of God’s grace in a deeper and more meaningful way.” -Amazon Book Description Summary
By: Sally Lloyd-Jones This is one of C’s favorites! We have been reading that routinely since this past summer… 🙂 It’s a great story to read that brings in scripture to the Christmas story in a beautifully illustrated story to connect modern celebrations of Christmas today like decorating a tree and presents under a tree with the true meaning of Christmas and how the modern traditions can point to the greater gifts within the Christmas season.
Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story
By: Sally Lloyd-Jones Another great illustration of the Christmas story! I love how descriptive this book is and how she ties in all of the animals that are rejoicing and traveling to go and see the good news of the savior’s arrival!
By: Alison Mitchell I wanted to get one new supplemental story for the kids this year (2018) as their “something to read” gift from us, and this is one of them that they got to enjoy before Christmas. It typically sells out, and when I went to order it on Amazon last year, it actually was backordered until after Christmas, but it ended up coming earlier! These series of books by Alison Mitchell and friends are wonderful, and we have several of them. The illustrations are beautiful and they are gospel-centered. Definitely recommend this one!
New Morning Mercies Devotional
I get asked about this devotional every time I share the devotional on my stories, so thought I’d add it to this mix of supplemental reading on this post. I appreciate Tripp’s thoughtfulness and ability to share the good news of the gospel in each new devotional and that there is a reference to scripture to continue sitting in after you read the devotional for the day. I have really enjoyed this devotional and have been told by those of you who have purchased it that you really enjoy it, too! Would make a great gift at Christmas too!
Last things . . .
This app has an advent devotional to listen to called “Wonder” that would be a super easy way to do your advent reading each day! Dwell has been an absolute GAME CHANGER for me. I have stuck with and am just about finished up with my 1-year bible reading plan for reading the bible in a year. I’ve NEVER done this before, Praise God! This app has helped me fit my bible reading in every single day- whether that’s early in the morning before everyone’s up, very very early in the morning during those middle of the night feedings when we had Charlee, in the car, in the shower, working out, making dinner, folding the laundry… literally wherever, whenever, this app allows you to read and meditate on the Word richly. I am so thnakful for this resource and wanted to share it here! I’ve shared about it many times on my IG stories, but it needed a permanent place of publication from me 🙂 A subscription to Dwell would make the perfect Christmas gift to someone this year!
ESV Men’s and Women’s Devotional Bibles
Here is the men’s version of the ESV devotional bible that Dakota uses
Dakota and I both use these for our bible studies, for sermon series to take to church with us, and in our own bible studying/reading. These would make great gifts for someone and be a way to note take as you do your advent reading each day! They can be purchased in sets (old and new) or individually. I have the illuminated sets and Dakota has the all-black sets! They are beautiful!
We’ve watched a movie together for the last couple years also called, The Star. It is such a sweet movie! They also have the book version. Collins loved the movie, and we did too! I would definitely recommend it. A cute story line from the donkey’s perspective that still stays on track with the Christmas story. Our church showed it for the children last year leading up to Christmas as well. You can find it on Netflix I believe!
I hope these resources encourage you and help equip you and your family in new ways as you prepare for Christmas!
with love,
from courtney
withlovefromcourtney.com 