Spend Quality Christmas Time With Your Family

The day after Thanksgiving I woke up full of excitement and it wasn’t because of all the Black Friday sales. The Christmas season has officially kicked off! I am probably just as excited as my daughter to drag out the decorations and fill every inch of our home with Christmas cheer. Kids love the holiday with all of the fun activities, gifts, and treats. Christmas is a wonderful time to create family traditions and make long lasting memories for everyone to enjoy. There are a number of activities you can do to make the holiday memorable.

Ideas for Spending Quality Time with Family this Christmas

Yearly Christmas Scrapbook

Scrapbooking is a fun way to record memories of your family’s Christmas each year. Buy an inexpensive photo album or scrapbook and get the whole family together to decorate the cover. Over the Christmas holiday collect the pictures of family and friends, snowball fights, school pageants, and tree decorating and arrange them in the scrapbook with captions capturing the moment. If you attend any performances collect the stubs and thrown them in there too. A great day to complete the scrapbook is on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day so that you can reflect upon all the fun of the season.

Bake Cookies and Pastries

No matter how young or old we are there is nothing better than the smell of warm cookies baking in the oven. Get your aprons on and let the baking begin. If you have extended family in close proximity invite them over and begin a baking tradition. Bake an extra batch of cookies and give them to the neighbors or give your children’s classmates a treat and bake enough for their class.

Watch the Classics

I know Christmas has arrived when I take out Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The oldies will always be the best classics to cozy up on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate and your family to watch Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and It’s a Wonderful Life. I suggest buying some movies that are about the birth of Jesus Christ. Movies about the day our Savior is born should become classics just as much as Frosty is in our homes.

Gift of Giving

Christmas is truly a time of reflection on the life of Jesus Christ. It is a wonderful time to encourage the gift of giving in your children. With so many people suffering because of the economic climate, now is a good time to as any to give to those in need. If you are able, adopt a family for Christmas and provide gifts and food for them for the holiday. If your wallet doesn’t allow it then just contribute a toy to the many charitable organizations that are collecting gifts for children. Have your children choose the toys for the kids, or visit a nursing home and sing some carols or give an elderly person a gift.

Secret Santa is a fun way to get your family involved in the spirit of giving. Choose a family and leave a present at their door in the evening, send a little note saying that it is from the secret Santa. It can be a small token of appreciation for a friend, neighbor, or person in need. Teaching our children to have a servant’s heart is one of the best Christmas gifts we can give them.

Take a Stroll Around the Neighborhood

Quality time together can be as simple as taking a walk after dinner with the family around the neighborhood. During this time of year the lights on the homes and the decorations are beautiful. If it is too cold outside jump in the car and bring a thermos of hot chocolate and a batch of cookies and ride around town enjoying the sights.

Attend Christmas Events

Check the local events in your area for fun filled family activities. In my area almost every weekend there is a performance or a kid’s holiday activity happening. If you don’t live too far from a major city, like I do in Washington, DC take the time to enjoy all of the events taking place. Sleigh rides, cutting down the tree, ice skating, the Nutcracker, and watching light up night together are great ways to have fun and spend quality time together.

The Christmas season is a wonderful time of year to celebrate the life of Christ and make lasting memories with our family. Teaching our children that Christmas is not about gifts, but about togetherness and the reflection of the birth of Christ teaches them the true meaning of Christmas. It is easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of shopping for the presents and decorations, but it is important to not allow the superficial things to take away from quality time we spend with family and friends. Most importantly spend time in church, in fellowship, and in prayer with your children so that your family honors our Father and his Son.

Copyright © Chere Williams, Moms of Faith, All Rights Reserved