While traveling down to Portland for a business trip yesterday, I came across a good Christian radio station called Casting Crowns Radio. The topic of discussion was ways to bring Christ back into Christmas and the traditions people and churches have in making sure Christ is the center of Christmas.
Last night was our churches Christmas party and the words of the pastor and the people who called in were fresh on my mind. Therefore, I was particurlarly wary of if the party would center around Jesus or not. I’m sorry to say that while the party was fun and a good social event and Santa Claus came and the food was good, etc., Jesus was an afterthought. The only reference to Christ was one verse of Silent Night at the end of the party.
I thought about my own life and asked myself in all the hustle and bustle around Christmas time, what am I doing to ensure it is centered around Jesus and the purpose of Christmas?
I like the idea of having a set tradition. As the oldest of 8 children, while growing up we would usually re-enact the Christmas story of Jesus’ birth on Christmas eve. One of the younger kids would be the baby and others would be shepherds and we would re-enact the story of Christmas to a recorded version of my dear Grandma Anderson’s reading from the Bible. It brought the focus of Christmas on Jesus and as we did this it also strengthened our family.
My wife’s family has a fun tradition of getting together Christmas eve and having a talent show. People will play Christmas songs on the guitar, piano, or share a little treat or do a Christmas reading.
I’d love to hear your ideas and suggestions of what you do to bring Jesus into the Christmas season. Feel free to share what you do or what you’ve seen others do.
Merry Christmas!
Author’s note on January 1, 2011:
I just came across a great article on the LDS church website that shares Christtmas traditions of the LDS leaders. View it on this link: http://lds.org/liahona/2010/12/christmas-traditions-of-the-seventy?lang=eng
Grace for Grace 
15 comments
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December 6, 2010 at 7:19 am
Anthony E. Larson
I guess I’m just an old fashioned pagan because I think that the Christmas traditions do reverence sacred history, information and customs as old as this world. That Christ is an important part of those traditions and customs, there can be no doubt. But to say that we should focus only on Christ is misguided. Christmas, originally Saturnalia or Kronia, was a winter solstace celebration of light and gift giving, and the holiday’s roots go all the way back to the Patriarchal Age, before Noah’s flood, to Enoch and Adam. So, don’t tell me to stop enjoying the age old customs and traditions of Christmas to focus solely on Christ. These traditions and the Nativity story belong together. I don’t recall a revelation to any of the modern prophets directing us to suppress the Christmas traditions. Lighten up. Enjoy. There is no sin or error in it, as you seem to believe.
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December 8, 2010 at 5:19 am
ama49
Anthony,
I’m not saying it’s not good to have Santa Claus and all the fun things around Christmas. I am saying though that if we’re having a church party and Jesus is an afterthought…that is an issue.
Also, if all we’re doing is celebrating the winter solstace then why call it Christmas at all? Christ should be the central focus during Christmas. All the other stuff is fine and fun, but it’s not right to remove Christ from Christmas.
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December 6, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Cal
Merry Christmas back to you, ama, and to all my buddies at Grace for Grace.
The things that come to mind to keep Christ in Christmas are:
*Remembering that the red stripe in striped candy canes originally symbolized—and still does—the blood of Christ.
*Did someone say the Christmas tree represents the tree that Jesus’ hung on for our transgressions?
*Watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas” every year—Christ is in it!
*Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer is a type of Christ—he was rejected but God raised him to lead us all! (I made that up!)
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December 8, 2010 at 5:20 am
ama49
Hi Cal,
Thanks for the awesome comments. Especially the Rudolf one. That’s funny.
I hope you have a great Christmas this year! Doing anything fun?
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December 7, 2010 at 12:54 am
ezra
Lighting the Advent wreath in the weeks prior to Christmas is good. What a nice atmosphere for the nightly devotion.
Going caroling in the care centers is a nice tradition, holding hands with those who so miss their families–and their livelihoods!
We have services on Christmas Eve and Day which we attend; we cannot lose our focus there.
Before opening gifts, read Luke 2, or summarize the event for everyone there. (I have even heard it sung.)
There is much joy–in the presence of Christ,
Blessings in his name,
Ezra
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December 8, 2010 at 5:22 am
ama49
Ezra,
Awesome comments. I’ve done the caroling in care centers before. That lightens up their lives and is awesome to see them feel a little joy during the Christmas season.
What do you have planned this year?
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December 7, 2010 at 1:57 pm
ray
If one makes Christmas a truly family-centered holiday, or maybe even better, if one includes others who don’t have families in one’s celebration, that to me is putting Christ at the center of the celebration. I know families that read the scriptures. I know one that used to have their children reenact the Christmas story. All of this is wonderful. I’ve never understood how families could go skiing on Christmas Day or go to professional basketball games and feel that Christ was anywhere near them.
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December 8, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Ken
ama,
We just had our ward party this last weekend too. The Primary did a reenactment of the birth of Christ, and the Bishop read some scriptures to help remind us of what the main theme of Christmas should be. Didn’t have Santa show up though.
For me and my family we find the best way to bring Christ into Christmas is to find a family in need and do what we can to help make their Christmas a little better. We put a ad on craigslist to give away some outside decorations we don’t need any more. The family that called for them said they didn’t have any money to buy gifts, but want to at least put us some lights. I’m going to take the decorations over this weekend and see if I can assess their needs. Then based on what they need we will go back with some gifts and food to help make their Christmas a little better. Hope that all works out well.
The more we can give to others, the more we will find out own cup full.
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December 9, 2010 at 2:57 am
Doug
In the weeks leading up to Christmas our family enjoys visiting shut-ins in our church and community-we always bring them little treats as a reminder of the love God has for each of us. Christmas Eve in our house is busy as our church has three services and we are involved in all of them. The first service is modeled after the Moravian Love Feast and is a service for families with young children. Usually we have well over 300-400 people at this service with more than half of them under the age of 12! Along with singing carols and having a family sit up in the front and tell the Christmas story-everyone is served chocolate milk made at a local dairy and special recipe sugar cookies-such a treat was shared between two parties caught up in a church split back in the 1700’s among the Moravians and it led them to settle their dispute and show Christ’s love to each other. Our other two services are candlelight services and feature vocal choirs and bell choirs-at the last service we celebrate the Lord’s Supper at midnight. When I get home from the last service my wife is waiting for me with a small plate of Christmas cookies and a glass of eggnog. We sit on the sofa and snuggle and enjoy looking at our Christmas tree. Christmas morning we share in a family prayer before we begin opening our presents. When it is time to sit down for Christmas dinner-we begin with some carols (accompanied by one of my sons who plays violin) and English crackers (wrapped cylinders that pop when they are opened and are filled with treats including paper crowns that everyone wears. Our tradition is to invite at least one person to share our Christmas dinner who would otherwise be alone-we have always been blessed by this.
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November 25, 2012 at 3:27 pm
graceforgrace
Hi Doug,
It’s been a couple years since you wrote this comment and I just realized I hadn’t responded yet.
I love all of the traditions you shared! What a great way to serve the community and focus on the true meaning of Christmas. I really wish we did something like this on Christmas eve in our church.
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December 9, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Doug
I wanted to mention how much I enjoy Mormon Messages especially their latest Christmas message featuring children sharing what Christmas means to them-those kids get right to the heart of the reason for the seaon. I shared it with my family the other day. They should have played it at your Christmas party Ama!
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November 23, 2012 at 11:33 pm
Alan Pine
putting up a nativity scene ,,simple as that the older I get the less I expect or want ”presents”.For me its about ANYTHING but ”celebrating longer days coming again!! uhh err hmm thats why we call it Christmas
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November 25, 2012 at 3:28 pm
graceforgrace
Alan,
Nativity scene: Very good way to focus on the true meaning of Christmas and a visual reminder. Thanks for sharing.
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December 10, 2012 at 12:15 pm
Sheri
Just found this blog and, though the message is a couple of years old, I wanted to share what our family does to keep Christ the center of Christmas (and our lives). Every day of the year, we have Bible time together as a family where we study scripture, discuss our reading for the day and journal and pray about what we’ve learned. At Christmas time, we center our scripture study around the four themes of advent – hope, love, joy, and peace. Each day of the week has a different scripture which focuses on the theme for the week. We also incorporate other traditions within our study. For instance, last week we studied Hope – the hope we have because Christ went from the cradle to the cross and how we should react to that knowledge and apply it to our life. We ended the week with learning the history of the candy cane, then made some peppermint bark as a treat. We took a bag of it to a neighbor that we’ve had some issues with this year as an offering of peace. This week is our Love week. In addition to our love focused scriptures, we have a Jesus Jar that contains slips of paper that have small random acts of kindness written on them. Each day we draw one of the slips of paper to see what random act we will do (individually and collectively as a family) that day. At the end of the week we will bake cookies in the shapes of symbols of Christmas that tell the Christ story and will give them to neighbors and friends. Next week is Joy – At the end of the week, we’ll drive the neighborhoods to look at the Christmas lights – armed with Thank you notes to be given to each of the homes that display the nativity thanking them for displaying our first love – Jesus. The fourth week we will study peace. On Christmas Day each year, my youngest daughter makes an angel food cake. This is Jesus’ birthday cake. After dinner, we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and enjoy the desserts. When decorating our tree, we talk about the legend of the three trees – one tree became the manger in which the baby Jesus lay, one became a small fishing boat in which Jesus calmed the storm (which opens us up to talking about all Jesus’ miracles), and the third became strong beams which were eventually used to make the cross on which Christ would die for us all. And, finally, each of our children receive 3 gifts just as baby Jesus did. One gift represents the gold. This gift is something that our child needs (usually clothes, a new coat, or a pair of shoes). We talk about how Mary and Joseph used the gold the wise men brought to flee to Egypt when Herod ordered all the babies killed after Jesus’ birth. One gift represents frankencinse. This being an elaborate perfume used by kings, it represents the lavish gifts that our Father bestows upon us every day. This would be a “want” from the childrens’ wish list. And the third gift represents the myrrh. Myrrh was used to prepare a body of death and burial. This item is a spiritual gift intended to help grow and strengthen our children as Christians. Each person opens the representative gifts at the same time while we explain the meaning of each gift elaborating on the fact that while it is wonderful that Jesus was born, but we can’t stop there with our celebration and cannot forget that He also died for our salvation and that when we live for Him, we are adopted children of God and will live with Him in Heaven eternally.
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December 13, 2012 at 10:41 am
Doug Dwyer
I love your traditions Sheri! What a great way to celebrate the birth of Jesus with your family! Someone has said that “Christmas reminds us that we are not alone” and I couldn’t agree more.
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