Merry Christmas! As we count down the final hours to Christmas Day, I wanted to share one more fantastic Christmas tradition with you.
This one comes from the Preston family and I’ll let Stacy Preston’s own words explain how it works:
The ladies at our church gathered together to make Advent Calendars together and I love them! I met with one sweet family in our church to take a picture of their daughter as she happily placed all the pieces on the felt and explained what each one was.
I’m very excited to share this fun Christmas tradition with you. It comes all the way from a lovely family, the Tarletons, serving the Lord in Texas. Sarah Tarleton and I met in college at Union University and though we haven’t seen each other in years, we’ve been able to stay connected through social media.
Adam and Sarah Tarleton have four children under the age of six and have made the decision not to put unnecessary pressure on themselves to start fantastically complicated Christmas traditions. Rather, they keep it simple and keep the focus on Christ.
This Christmas Drama tradition began when Sarah was a teenager. It’s a way of visually presenting the Christmas story with candles and a short script that alternates between Scripture and carols. Every year on Christmas Eve, no matter who is in their house visiting, their family gathers around their dining room table.
Welcome to December! The focus of the blog will be a bit different this month. I’m going to highlight how various families keep Christ the center of Christmas this month. You’ll love some of these great ideas, especially if you’re a parent of “littles” looking to start new traditions.
Today, we’ll start our Advent season with a book review on Advent in Narnia: Reflections for the Season by Heidi Haverkamp. This 96 page book serves as a reader’s companion to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. It consists of four weeks of reflections, each week with 7 days. It even tells you which chapter to read along with in Lewis’ book.
I was searching for a great Christmas book to share with you and stumbled on this one. On the whole, I am a huge fan. It would work great as a family guide. I can see families sitting around the Christmas tree, reading part of Narnia and part of the Reflections every evening.
For a child will be born for us,
a son will be given to us,
and the government will be on His shoulders.
He will be named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
I vividly remember being the kid who got mad every time I saw “X-mas” rather than “Christmas.” I felt as though, accidently or not, people were taking Christ out of Christmas.
Many years later, I was sitting in Biblical Greek class in college and learned about the “chi rhos” (pronounced “keye ross”). The early church used the first two letters of “Christos” (translated as “Christ”) to create a symbol to represent the name of Jesus.
“X-mas” can still mean “Christmas,” though if you don’t want to be mistaken for taking Christ out of Christmas, it’s probably better to go ahead and write out His full name.
As the energy and excitement of Christmas begins to fade, let’s be reminded that we celebrate the birth of our God in human form. He truly is the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace.
Happy (almost) New Year!
Copyright © 2013. Pedestrian God Ministires
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