Christmas Advent


I have been struggling with Christmas since last month. Every year the commercialism gets me down and this year I have been down right depressed about it. My husband thinks I need antidepressants. I'm serious. I used to act like a 4 year old about Christmas, getting all giddy and begging to put up the lights and decorations.
But this year it just hasn't happened. (all right, I did smile when we pulled out the box with lights in it to test them)
I was talking with a friend about this today and she admitted she was feeling the same way.

We're tired of Christmas excluding Christ! I'm tired of Santa and promotional sales.

So I'm taking back Christmas. I'll have posts throughout the next month on some of the things my family is doing. Some of them involve just doing more things together. Some will be directly about the Savior's birth.
The first one I decided to do was make a unique advent calendar.
I went to my church's website for archives of the children's magazine The Friend. I typed in Christmas and printed off some of my favorite talks. I also printed off some scriptures. I am now folding these into origami cranes to put on the tree. Every morning starting Dec 1, the kids will take turns picking a bird and we'll read one of these along with family scriptures and prayer.
Regardless of what faith you belong to, I think anyone can use this idea. You can do nice thoughts or stories or your favorite scriptures about the Savior.
I want Christmas to mean something to us again. We're going to be doing a lot more homemade and a lot less store bought in hopes this will help our family be closer and remember the true meaning.
What are your favorite holiday traditions that bring your family closer to God?

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