SO of the "No-Santa CHristmas" thread-celebrating Jesus' birthday

nmartin1

nmartin1

New member
I'm just curious to know what things those of you who promote Jesus' birthday in your house do. I am in need of some good, quality family traditions to start!
 
Well, I posted this in the other thread LOL...

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We celebrate Jesus' birthday...we'll be baking him a birthday cake...donating some toys (as His birthday gift...giving to others).

Rachel has a nativity set to play with and we'll tell her the story as we play with her, and we'll be going to a candlelight Christmas Eve service.
 
Here are two of our traditions in layouts

The first one is the White Stocking on Christmas eve
whitestocking2.png

This humble and small stocking holds a special place in our hearts...because it is Jesus' stocking. Every year, the little white stocking will be hung in our home. And on Christmas Eve, the family takes a few minutes to fill Jesus' stocking. Each of us write on a piece of paper a gift for Jesus to be placed in the stocking. A commitment to love others as Jesus loves us, a goal for growth in our lives, or ways we will reach out to others. It will remain in the stocking until next year's Christmas Eve when we will reach into the stocking and pass out the papers from the year before and again take a moment to give our gifts to Jesus.


The second one is the birthday cake on Christmas morning
joywasborn.jpg
 
I posted a photo of these in the decorations thread, but we have simple wooden cribs sitting under the tree. When a child does a good deed, he/she places one piece of straw in the crib (or we sometimes use pieces of yarn). The goal is to have a plump, soft bed of straw ready for Jesus when he is born.

When I was a child we each had our own crib, but you could do one for all the kids together.
 
We put a nativity scene under our tree because Jesus was the very best gift of all.

We also have a stocking hanging along side our kids stockings. The concept is for the kids to write on a piece of paper promising how they will keep him in their lives all year long.
 
juliebee70 said:
This humble and small stocking holds a special place in our hearts...because it is Jesus' stocking. Every year, the little white stocking will be hung in our home. And on Christmas Eve, the family takes a few minutes to fill Jesus' stocking. Each of us write on a piece of paper a gift for Jesus to be placed in the stocking. A commitment to love others as Jesus loves us, a goal for growth in our lives, or ways we will reach out to others. It will remain in the stocking until next year's Christmas Eve when we will reach into the stocking and pass out the papers from the year before and again take a moment to give our gifts to Jesus.
Click to expand...

julie. this made me cry! what an amazing idea and so very thoughtful! i really want to start this tradition with my own family, if you don't mind. :)
 
We haven't done this yet because our son is too little (maybe this year) but dh's family has always done this.


One Christmas day they bake a cake for Jesus and put candles on it. They take it outside sing happy birthday and his dad spins in a circle holding it so that the wind blows out the candles (Jesus blowing out the candles).

We also read the Christmas story from the bible on Christmas eve.

The one I want to start is having the avent scene change each day leading up to Christmas. So have Mary and Joseph and then baby Jesus appear on Christmas and have the wise men travel our livingroom towards Jesus.
 
Julie that is so sweet! I think I might steal that idea this year if you don't mind :)
We do a birthday cake or cupcakes for Jesus. Sometimes it gets done on Christmas day but sometimes before or after because we're always running back and forth that day.
 
We do t he traveling creche, too! Mary & Joseph travel, as do the wise men..each ending up on the mantle on their appropriate days (Christmas Eve and Ephiphany respectively).

We also do the birthday cake for Jesus, either as a real cake or as a coffee cake for breakfast - still with candles!!

We make it a point to read the Nativity story before presents on Christmas morning, but they can do their stockings as soon as they wake up.

We do a lot more volunteer work through our church at this time of our - our giving back for Jesus. I work at the church's food pantry, and we provide pre-boxed holiday meals for our families, as well as the Angel tree and helping distribute that. It's sort of our gift to Jesus - to help out even more this time of year so that other families can celebrate His birth, too.

We do lots of Advent celebration and observances through the month, readings and crafts, etc.

Julie - the white stocking is a precious idea...and the crib is - a perfect visualization of what we do and how it benefits...and how we're building His Kingdom!
 
I have one little advent scene, and it's so small, I think if it traveled it would get lost!:)

I like the idea, though, do the kids move it? The crib is a great one too!
 
The white stocking is a great idea! Thanks for sharing it!

We have an Advent calendar that has little Nativityelated ornaments in the drawers and we hang up an ornament each day to create a full Nativity scene by Christmas eve.

I also had plans to do the Jesse tree this year but I couldn't get my act together in time so we'll do it next year.

http://www.rca.org/Page.aspx?pid=1628&srcid=1602

Helen
 
LOL... you all are funny. Steal away on the white stocking idea! Jesus would love white stockings at every house! The stocking was given to us by my church many years ago. I wish I would have thought of it myself, but I'm just glad that it was shared with us because it's a tradition that really means a lot to my family. It's just a little felt stocking that is rather crudly hot glued together, LOL. I'm sure it is as meaningful in a humble version as it would a fancier version, so I've never "upgraded" it.
 
Wow, I looove the white stocking idea!!

And we used to do the cribs with straw when I was little! I had completely forgotten about that until reading this thread. I really loved doing that. Thanks for bringing back the memory!!
 
Some great ideas that I am going to have to use.

We usually read out of the Bible on Christmas Eve and watch a short DVD on the birth of Jesus. Growing up, we reenacted the Nativity story with costumes. Dad was always the donkey. I have fond memories of that. It is a fun thing to do if you are celebrating with extended family and have enough people.
 
Oh, also, in the past we've done a Jesus and Me tree. http://workingforjesusonline.com/ - you associate a bible verse with an everyday object that you then use as an ornament. For example a Kleenex (tissue), maybe tied with a ribbon goes with "And he, God, shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning or Crying or pain." (Revelation 21:4)

The verses are printed on a strip of paper and attached to the "ornament."
 
The white stocking will be started in my house next year, I think. That idea is super cute!! WE don't have stockings for the rest of us yet (hoping to make some for next year) and the kids are really too small to 'get' that yet.
We have a Nativity set I made sure was not too breakable to let the kids hold on to. We do daily readings to get us through the theams of hope, peace, love and joy as well as tell the Christmas story. We have a set of ornaments that come out each week that are accociated with peace, hope, love and joy. W remember that these are the gifts that are ours because of Jesus. I put the readings together a few years ago, and have made a booklet with them, as well as a pile of other Advent ideas. If you want me to email you the PDF of the booklet, PM me your email. :)
 
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