Mike and I try to do things intentionally to make our Christmas season a Christ centered Christmas. We realized many years ago, that with all the distractions during this time of the year, we must put forth lots of effort in this area...because it was not going to just happen. It is very easy to get caught up in the materialism and commercialism of this time. Well, I guess I should say it is easy for me...I like things that are sparkly and pretty...I love dressing up and going places...I enjoy Christmas decorations. I love seeing how others decorate their homes for Christmas. I enjoy cooking holiday meals. All of these things are not bad in and of themselves, but they can be when we delight in these things instead of Christ. It can be sinful when these things pull our hearts away from Christ and toward sinful thoughts. For example, I can remember a time that we went to a tour of homes and instead of just enjoying the beautiful home and getting ideas, I became very discontent with my own home and the decorations...thinking mine was not done as well or as pretty...etc. Jealousy and covetousness filled my heart. I have been really convicted of this through the years and have asked the Lord to make my heart focused on Him during this season and share with my children the love of God through His son, Jesus Christ. I can tell you from my own personal experience, that focusing on Him has helped me take the focus off of myself, which is what a lot of us do at Christmas. I have also found that when we truly love God and the things of God, we find true joy because we are delighting in Him. I desperately want this joy in my heart...I need the Lord's joy!!!

I thought I would share some things we have really enjoyed through the years as ways to keep Christ in Christmas. It does take time to make the Christmas season special and all about the Lord, but we must put forth the effort.

Family Worship: During the Christmas Season is a new book for us. We began on December 1st and we highly recommend it to you. Maybe you could begin a time of family worship now and carry it on after Christmas. Or maybe you are already in the practice of doing family worship...this would be a great resource for you to add this time of the year. My husband really likes it and say it makes his job easy! I like this book because it has a devotional, scripture reading, and activities to do for each day of December. We do not do it every evening, but we are going through it in order and will just finish it when we do. It has been very helpful for our family and is good for all ages. I've learned a lot so far!!!

The Adornaments by Family Life has been wonderful through the years! We look forward to beginning this every year! It has an ornament for different names of Christ...like He is the bread of life...or he is the Light of the world...there is a CD with scripture songs to learn the verses and a book to read a short explanation for each ornament. We love this!!!!

We, also, like What God wants for Christmas from Family Life. This is a nativity set that the children get to interact with as they learn about each character in the Christmas story. It has a strong explanation of the gospel in the surprise ending. The younger children love it.

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey is one of my favorite picture books for Christmas. It is about a very bitter gloomy woodcarver who keeps to himself. He has a lace handkerchief, a baby's blanket, and a picture of his wife and baby in a drawer he never opens. It brings his heart too much sadness. The story is about a widow and his son who want the woodcarver to carve a nativity set for them. Through this time of making this for them a miracle happens in his heart. It is a beautiful story that points to Christ as the healer of the soul.

Another good picture book is The First Christmas according to Luke. It is simply the scriptures put to beautiful pictures for children to see what happened on that night long ago. Mike reads Luke 2 on Christmas Eve and this book is a good tool to use as he reads to the younger ones. The pictures are lovely and the simpleness of it is what I appreciate.

Martha Peace recommended this book, The Gift, at the conference last weekend, so I bought it. I must add it to my list of resources that help us have a Christ centered Christmas. It is just a wonderful story! It is on about 6th-7th grade reading level, but can be read a loud to younger children. The pictures are outstanding,too! You can go here to read about the story. I love the emphasis on Christ in this new, but already loved book.

I hope you will find this helpful and remember...A Christmas without Christ is not really Christmas.