A new book published this year The Twelve Days of Christmas by Betty Van Orden, has so many ideas for carrying out the 12 days of Christmas for your family and loved ones.
We were particularly interested in her ideas for 12 days of focusing more on the Savior. She Chooses a theme such as Following the Savior, or The Reason for the Season or Angels Among Us and brainstorms ways to carry out the theme for 12 days teaching about the Savior and creating memories for her family. For instance one day there might be a new Christmas book to read together and beautiful beads and cord to make family bookmarks. Another day she would plan a service activity or present the story of Teach the Children (found on this site) with a small bag of objects that correlate with the story.
We found her ideas to be a wonderful mix of ideas that enhance teaching moments and ideas that are just fun and create lasting memories. Reading her book was a great spring board for creating plans for our own family, one idea led to another.....this would be as much fun to prepare for as to carry out. She would prepare for all 12 days, choose stories and activities and wrap each day individually, then place them in a big plastic storage container, even preparing these for family members who lived far away.
We can all thoughtfully and prayerfully consider ways to bring our family closer to each other and to the Savior (and have fun at the same time).
Thank you so much for your blog. We decided to tell our children this year that Santa is a good way to learn about Christ, but that he is not real. SO, I've been looking for Christ centered activities to fill our December with. Your blog is such a blessing. I love it. :) Merry Christmas.
ReplyDeleteHello! Couldn't find a good spot on your site to contact you, so I hope you don't mind me leaving a comment here. If you are going to make posts for the 2011 season, you may want to check out:
ReplyDeletehttp://wstandlea.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/nativity-calendar-photos-patterns-instructions/