Christ Centered Christmas: Symbols of the Season

Organization is a big part of being able to keep your traditions centered on Christ. Every year begin preparing for Christmas by buying an inexpensive notebook to jot down all ideas and plans with an overall view of focusing more on the Savior. This can be a three-ring binder, a composition book, or a simple spiral book. You can decorate it with your scrapbook paper stash to make it look festive. You want something durable because you will be seeing a lot of this notebook in the coming weeks. A small notebook is easy to carry around with you so it is readily accessible for when the spirit hits you.

The Christmas planning notebook may be divided into sections such as:
*Budget
*Gift lists
*Menus, recipes, and baking ideas
*Calendar
*Christ centered traditions
*Spiritual thoughts and ideas for family lessons or study
*Service
*Cards and letters to write
*Ideas for children and family activities
*Service ideas and plans
*Anything else you need to write down.

Start organizing sections in the notebook early, even before Halloween, and add ideas and plans as you think of them. The entire purpose of this Christmas planning book is to help your family have the time and energy to focus more of your efforts and time together on the most important part of Christmas, the Savior.

This notebook will be your 'brains' for the next few weeks and next year you will have a great resource to draw from.

Now that you have your notebook and you are well on the way to being organized, we want to share with you some of our ideas and traditions for having a Christ Centered Christmas. The posts on this blog will provide you with various ideas that you can file away in your notebook and utilize to make your holiday Christ centered.

PLEASE SHARE any ideas you have with us. Either comment on an existing post or email Sarah at famtreeclimber AT hotmail DOT com.

We are excited to share the true meaning of Christmas together!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Symbols of the Season

In the book, A Child Is Born by W. Jeffrey Marsh, the author states that, "Christmas symbols are everywhere. We can succesfully mix the two (the symbols of Christmas and the Savior) and enjoy both, without hastily and guiltily retreating into separate worlds each Christmas season--if we allow one to bear witness of the other. Each Christmas custom and every Christmas symbol can help us remember and appreciate more, some greater truth about Christ."

Teach your children of all the symbols of Christmas. We can actually feel spiritually uplifted living in the world of candy canes, wreaths, lights and all the trappings that go with Christmas if we use all of these holiday trappings to remind us of the real meaning for celebration. We can look at the following symbols of Christmas and see a deeper meaning.

Candy Canes--the shepherd's crook
Evergreen Wreaths and Trees--eternal life
Stars--the star of Bethlehem
Christmas Lights--The Savior is the light of the world
Santa Claus--the spirit of giving
Candles--Jesus is our true source of light and shining light to a dark world

Julie Slagle shared an idea on Sugardoodle for an advent calendar using the symbols of Christmas and scriptures to go along with them. She also included an ornament and an activity for each day.
Another posted on Sugardoodle that has pictures and meanings

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We are two sisters, Sarah and Anna, and our Mom, Ruth working together to compile and share traditions that are centered around Christ.

We love traditions that bring us closer as a family and help us remember our Savior at Christmas. Our family has enjoyed many of the ideas listed on this site and we have many happy memories resulting from the traditions established through the years.

We also love trying new things and searching through the creative ideas of others on the internet. We hope to be able to bring all these ideas together to share the true meaning of Christmas, our Savior.

There are a lot of resources yet to be added. Check us out often!