Christmas part 2

Our Christmas was pretty easy going. We got up and had the kids open 1 present each before having breakfast. Then I read the Christmas story to them from Matthew and Luke while using some flannel graph and nativity scene figurines. We finished opening presents and played with them the rest of the day. Emery really appreciated her gifts...

I think this was the beginning of many hours in front of the mirror for her. But just like most people, as a child and now a parent, Christmas is definitely one of the best days of the year for me. But how do we, on a real practical basis, make Christmas more about Jesus and less about presents and food and worldly joy? How do we avoid spending 5 minutes talking about Jesus being the reason for the season and spend the rest of the day focusing on worldly pleasures? How do I, as a parent, not reinforce this message by getting such a huge kick out of watching my kids get so excited about gifts? Because Andrew is now 6 (and will be having permanent memories), I really want to make progress in this area so this is what we tried to do:

First, it definitely helps to have less gifts. The kids received fewer gifts than past years and were just as happy with what they got. Second, it definitely helps to spend less on the gifts. It helped us as parents to think more creatively and work a little harder to tailor our gifts to our kids to their specific interests and abilities. Third, we tried to get more gifts that were interactive with other people. That way we could all enjoy the gifts together by playing together rather than having each kid playing by himself/herself and becoming more self-absorbed.

But those things are all exterior actions that by themselves don't truly address my heart and the kids' hearts. So most importantly this year, I realized that as great a day as Christmas is, heaven will be infinitely better in quality and everlasting duration. So instead of feeling guilty (at times) that my kids were enjoying their gifts, I used this as an opportunity to point them to the greater joy in Christ in heaven through the gifts. I thought about it all day and reminded them about it all day. It made our Christmas even more special, more fun, and more Christ centered.