Celebrating Christmas the Traditional Way
The Christmas season is about commemorating the birth of Christ and should be celebrated in church and with the family, say mothers from an international Christian mothers ministry.
The Christmas season is about commemorating the birth of Christ and should be celebrated in church and with the family, say mothers from an international Christian mothers ministry.
Carla Dietz, San Jose-based coordinator for Mothers of Preschoolers International, takes her family to church during the season for the advent services and the candle lighting Christmas service.
"For us, the church is the center point of our family life and it helps to draw our family together and our faith is the one thing that pulls us all together," she says. "When all my children go to all different schools and my husband travels, our church is the one thing that we all have in common and it's important to stick with it."
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She added that the holiday cheer is not about giving gifts but spending quality time with family.
"It's fun to give gifts to people, but the most important thing is to spend time with your family, talking about what Christmas is all about and developing some traditions that will draw your family together," says Diatz.
"Those are the things that your children will remember, not the gifts," she added. "They won't remember what they got year to year. It's about activities and traditions."
Dietz is one of more than 100,000 women who actively participate in MOPS International's weekly small groups throughout the United States and in 35 other countries.
Another MOPS regional coordinator, Kim Bain from Dallas, chooses to celebrate the birth of Jesus with her family in an unusual way.
Together, they pick a neighborhood family, and every day for seven days, the children place a piece of a nativity scene on the family's porch along with a Scriptural verse. After the children ring the doorbell, they run off. They reveal their identity after the nativity scene is complete and follow up with a nativity party. Friends come over and the children read the Bible story and make crafts.
Her advice to mothers is, "Just think of some interesting and unique things," but "not go overboard with the gift-giving."
For those without a family, she suggests getting involved in church activities and blessing others.
"If you're feeling lonely or sad, it's always good to bless somebody else," she said. "Sometimes it takes the focus off yourself."
"Traditions are really important, but other times, traditions really may only serve to frustrate you," says Lynda Lowin, a mother of three from Hammondsport, N.Y. "I would suggest that a mom carefully set the traditions for her family and ask will this really make a difference in my children's future?"
Lowin also brings her family to church each year for the early evening Christmas Eve service and celebrates Jesus' birth with a birthday party complete with candles and cake. She says she tries her best to equate Christmas with Jesus' birth.
Her reward is seeing her children understand the meaning behind the love and joy of the season.
"They're now starting to really understand that the gift was the sacrifice of his life," she says proudly of her three children – four-year-old Natalie, 8-year-old Aaron, and Matthew, who's 10. "That's been a nice thing to see as they get older."
