It's very hard to teach your children that Christmas isn't about the presents when they awaken Christmas morning to a tree that's hidden by piles and piles of wrapped packages. This is hard as parents, because we WANT to give our children gifts, it's FUN to give them every little thing their hearts desires. How much does that take away from the real meaning of Christmas? Think about what Christmas day is like at your house - how much of your day is actually spent focusing on Jesus?
A good friend of mine gives her children 3 gifts each because the Wise Men gave 3 gifts to Jesus. I think this is a great idea.
At our house, we give our gifts based on Luke 2:52 - "And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man." We give a gift for wisdom (something educational), a gift for stature (usually something physical - a new football or something), favor with God (a devotional book, Christian CD, something along those lines), and favor with man (we decide as a family what we're going to do to help other people - sponsor a child, collect canned goods, save our change, etc.). Be watching for tomorrow's post which has our "favor with man" project for this year.
Be looking for ways in your house to minimize the gifts and maximize Jesus birthday!
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