Do you have anything that you put away for a “special” day? While unpacking my Christmas decorations, I pulled out my candles and starting putting them on the table and around the house. As I unpacked one of the candles, I noticed that it had melted because it had been in storage where it was hot. I have had some of these candles for many years and I have yet to light them.
I stopped and thought about this for a moment. “Why do I have candles if I’m not going to use them for their designated purpose?” My thoughts, previously, have been that I don’t want to ruin them so that I would have them for a special time. A special time? Why wouldn’t every Christmas be a special time? I stopped then and there and decided to burn my candles this Christmas.
That may seem like a simple thought, but it was huge in my mindset for this Christmas. We are on a very tight budget this year (as most people are) and I was worried about not being able to give our boys a special Christmas. I have decided to not just have a special day, but a special month. I have decided to make the “little” things more important this year. Have you noticed how the most important things get pushed aside for the all of the business of this time of year?
The reason why we have Christmas, after all, is because of Jesus Christ and His birth. That seems to be put aside for shopping, school programs and parties. We are going to be concentrating on Christ and making Christmas last all month long.
Here are some of what we are doing this month (most of which take little to no money):
- putting up a piece of the nativity, one day at a time, so that we can talk about the Christmas story and why each piece is important
- reading stories about Jesus’ birth
- trying to memorize Luke 2 and video it to send to grandparents
- making a puppet show about the Christmas story and video it to send to grandparents
- talking about the symbols of Christmas and what they have to do with Jesus
- learning Christmas carols
- reading the Christmas story out of the Bible as a family
- picking out an Angel Tree card and having the boys help pick out the gift
- making Christmas cards
- doing Random Acts of Kindness
- driving around town looking at Christmas lights
- having the children decorate the tree (it always looks better that way)
- watching Christmas movies that we already own or that are on television
- using an advent calendar for a special activity for each day
- since we homeschool, I am planning each day to have a Christmas theme (it just makes the learning more fun and exciting)
- I wrapped Christmas books (that we already had) and the boys will be able to unwrap one each day. This way it’s more exciting to read some books each day. I will be putting one of the wrapped books in their stockings each day so that each morning they will have something to unwrap.
- making Christmas cookies and giving them to friends
- making ornaments for our tree
- make a popcorn string for our tree
Let’s all burn our candles this year and make THIS year special!