My family and I have been exploring ways to keep Christ the center of our Christmas celebration. Now that I have a child (soon to be children) of my own, I have been trying to be especially deliberate in placing the Christmas "magnifying glass" where it is meant to be.As a child, it can be difficult to remove the gift fog that seems to blur the birth of our Savior. One thing my husband and I have decided to do to lift this fog is to give our children only three gifts at Christmas. This year, our son will be receiving a small play center, a set of Bible-based children's books, and a puzzle-type-thing that has several different latches. Starting next year, when he is two, Levi will choose three of his own toys to give to a child in need, assuming we can find a family in our community who will accept used toys. If not, he will donate his toys to a missions thrift shop nearby.
Another way we are deliberately keeping Christ in Christmas is by following an Advent Calendar, leading up to the day we celebrate His birth. I have made two calendars, and my mom will soon be completing one as well. (I'll try to post her completed project soon).
I found instructions to the first calendar on this site.
It's made of 24 matchboxes hot-glued together, with touches of scrapbook paper and sticker embellishments. I am very pleased with the quaint, wintry look of it, but I'm not sure if it will hold up through years of being packed away, since the matchboxes aren't very durable.
I picked up the second calendar at Hobby Lobby in the Christmas craft section. It was plain cardboard, so I also bought red and green paint, white number stickers, and Christmas theme stickers. Everything was 50% off and I love how cute this turned out, especially for the low cost!
I picked up the second calendar at Hobby Lobby in the Christmas craft section. It was plain cardboard, so I also bought red and green paint, white number stickers, and Christmas theme stickers. Everything was 50% off and I love how cute this turned out, especially for the low cost! 
This will be the Advent Calendar we use with our kiddos. In each box, I placed either a name of Jesus, prophecy scriptures, or Gospel verses about Jesus' birth. Each day that has a name of Jesus in the box we will share a way that Jesus exemplifies that aspect of His being. For example, for Lamb of God, we will explain why Jesus is called the Lamb of God. For each day that has a scripture in the box we will look up the verse, read it, and discuss it.
I am so excited to incorporate these ideas into our Christmas traditions to help us remember that Jesus is the true reason for celebration!How about you? Are there any traditions your family has developed to help keep Christ at the center of Christmas?
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