In our Engaged Encounter presentations we talk about planning a life-giving marriage. I have decided to make an effort to have a life-giving Christmas. How do I do that? I have been criticizing the Christmas's of my youth because I remember Christmas morning and being overwhelmed by presents and not knowing who they were from and having to find a place to put everything. I'm sure that when I was a kid that I loved all of the gifts, but I want Christmas to be about something else than gifts for my kids.
As I think a little harder about those Christmas's I realize that they were about more than just the gifts, that they did have life-giving components. We spent time together as a family (extended family included), we went and saw Christmas lights, we visited Uncle Paul on Christmas Eve and always drove past the big house that was all decorated with lights and statues, we went to Mass together as a family, we went to Uncle Butch's house and had dinner as a family. I want to take those life-giving moments and expand them through the entire Christmas season. There will still be gifts, of course, but I don't want that to be the primary focus of the season. Here are some things on my Christmas bucket list that I feel will be life-giving. Since it's November 30th already I guess I better focus...
- Enjoy the beauty of nature: We had a big snow storm this past weekend and our yard looks like a winter wonderland. Christopher has been out in the snow but I haven't yet. I'd like to get outside and play with him in the snow.
- Build a ginger bread house: This can be a family activity or one with friends.
- Zoo lights: We haven't been before so I don't know exactly what to expect, but it's an activity that we can do as a family.
- Spend time with family throughout the month, not just try to cram it all in on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
- Go to Mass and choose an ornament from the giving tree. Have Christopher help pick out a gift for someone less fortunate than us.
- Daily Advent Calendar: I enjoyed following the daily advent calendar that Uncle Greg gave to us last year. I'd like to plan ahead so that we can incorporate some of the extra activities into our Christmas Season.
- Friend Christmas Party: We were debating on whether or not to do the party this year. But as I am writing this blog post today I now know that it is an important part of our life-giving Christmas tradition.
Hopefully I will be able to add more ideas later. I would love for some family traditions to evolve out of some of these things. Christmas is the perfect season to focus on being life-giving, my hope is that it will be the start of something that will continue throughout the year; that we will always try to focus on being life-giving to ourselves and those around us.
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