For the Christians here

How are you bringing Christ into your Christmas?

We will go to church of course but I think since it's such an important day in the Christian church and it's been so commercialised and becomes very materialistic for children so I feel I need to make a real effort to push the Christian theme in my household so I'm interested to see what others are doing and I might steal your ideas

We are making a fuss about it being Jesus' birthday and explained the presents by telling Michaela that Jesus loves us so much he wants us to have the presents on his birthday.  We will also sing happy birthday to Jesus before we cut the Christmas cake after dinner.

She's got very excited about Santa Claus this year and everyone asks her what she wants Santa to bring her so I was going to make up a story about St Nicholas and how he became Santa Claus so that she knows that St Nicholas is a servant of God and he does what he does because God loves us.  My sister said she has a book that she reads to her kids every year so I'm going to borrow that and see if it's ok for Michaela's age group. 

That's all I've come up with for this year.  Next year she'll be older so we'll start the Jesse tree stories.

 

ETA: she will also 'deliver' the baby Jesus from our nativity set on Christmas morning and there is going to be a Christian themed gift in her stocking among other things.

Edited by MrsMojo

Those are some great ideas already. I'm going to read the nativity story to Kahtrell....well try at least lolz, and make special decorations tomorrow....probably each depicting a member of the story...a baby jesus, mary, Joseph, 3 wise men, star of david. Also we're off to donate some toys to salvation army..to show him that christmas to about giving. I'll also go to midnight mass......luckily I only live one house down from the catholic church!

I am trying to find a simple nativity story for a three year old age group to read to my children on Christmas eve. The only books I can find are about santa and the presants side of things or a beautiful nativity story that is beyond my childrens comprehension. There were some on the internet but they would not have arrived in time. We are not a christian family however i would like my children to know why we celebrate Christmas and th.at it is not all about presants

Jo , I havent been to the time tunnel , but what i've heard is its a tunnel at a church near us (think its Elim church actually) and it is very much jesus focused (rather than Santa focused)

Every year I read her the nativity story on christmas eve, and we talk about Jesus and how its his birthday .
I keep it as simple as possible at the moment, we go to the crib service on christmas eve too
(I also went to the midnight service, but am too tired too atm!)

Kelly we went to that time tunnel last year - it's at Eastgate in Pakuranga. It was really good! There's one at Greenlane church too, a drivethrough nativity play. You can either drive round in your car (you park and see a drama scene then drive to the next one) or they have a truck.

Our boy is still young so not doing too much this year, we talk about how it's Jesus' birthday and we give presents to express our love to eachother, just like God loves us. We'll go to church on Christmas day, and if we were in Aucks for Christmas Eve we would have been at the children's service at our church.

Something that could be done with older kids that I did at Kids Church on Sunday, with preschoolers right up to 10 yr olds, was to tell the story of when Jesus was born, using Christmas tree decorations. I read it from the children's bible adding little bits here and there to explain the decorations, and DH held the decorations and did the voices (lol his angel singing was awesome!!) and then got a child to help him by putting the decoration on the tree. We also looked at a sign that said "Merry Christmas" and talked about how "Christ" is in "Christmas". Then we made angels to hang on the tree. Oh and one of the decorations was a heart cos that was why Jesus was born - cos Gos loves us so much. We just used random decorations my parents have. Also had lights already on the tree, and turned them on when talking about the angel appeared and God's light shone all around. Also talked about candy canes, and how they're shaped like the shepards stick thing (eek can't remember what it's called) to remind us of the shepards.

I like your idea Jo about talking about Santa like a servant of God. That's cool.

Aside from doing all the usual Christmassy things like Santa and cookies etc...we will be going to church on Christmas eve. DH was talking about making a cake for Jesus' birthday and singing Happy Birthday to Jesus.
We will also read the nativity story as well as other Christmas stories.
Next year when she is a bit older we will probably introduce "what kind of present would Jesus like?" eg helping out at a shelter or donating food or presents to charity etc.

I've kinda cheated lol coz Maya is at a Catholic school so they've done a lot of teaching her about Xmas, Advent and what it all means. I've been making the effort to take her to church (lol Eva our church is 2 doors down from home too, handy) during Advent and talking to her about the day's Gospel and the part of the service where they light the candle on the Advent wreath. She has a children's bible that I gave her as a Christening present and one that she won at school for being good in class so each night we read a few pages of the pre-xmas story and will read the actual nativity on Xmas day before Xmas lunch.

We're going to go to the kids service at her school's church on Xmas Eve, then to mass at our church on Xmas morning.

I haven't really done much with the gremlins tho, they are obsessed with Santa atm but they don't really understand that he brings presents, they just think they're clever coz they can recognise him in pictures lol. But they are still being exposed to the Christmas message at church and with us talking about it so the older they get, the more they'll understand.

Oh and I always make Maya choose a few toys each year to give away to the local refuge/Sallies etc. so she can appreciate the giving part of Xmas (and to make room for new stuff ). This year I did the hard work for them tho and gave the Mothercraft nurse 2 jumbo Huggies boxes full of toys .

Maya wrote: I haven't really done much with the gremlins tho, they are obsessed with Santa atm but they don't really understand that he brings presents, they just think they're clever coz they can recognise him in pictures lol. .

hehe , and Miss Maya likes to expose the fake ones when they don't wear boots

LittleBug wrote: Let me know what you find with regards to a simple nativity book... all of the ones I've seen are quite complex and I've been on the hunt for a good one for toddlers too.

 

Michaela has The Beginners Bible which is really good.  It has old and new testament stories including the nativity story and the Easter story. All of the stories are short and aimed at toddlers and preschoolers.

As far as age appropriate things TBH at that age we didn't really do anything for Michaela (other than go to church, which we do every weekend anyway, and mention Jesus' birthday) it's only now that she's getting into the commercial side of Christmas that I've started focussing on teaching her the true meaning of Christmas.

We've been reading Rowan the Christmas story in her children's bible. But really she's still a little young to get it.

We won't be doing midnight mass this year either because she'll just lose it but we might try and brave a morning service. (though usually she gets over it right when the sermon starts)