Celebrating Christmas!

      I am so excited to do a few give aways this Christmas!  With the permission of author Sybil MacBeth I want to bless some of you with some of her books. If you are interested in the drawing just subscribe to my blog and a random drawing will take place to give away one copy of MacBeth's book Praying in Color for Children to two winners and a copy of her Praying in Color book to four winners.  The winners will be announced on Christmas Day.  Also, be sure to check out Sybil MacBeth's blog at http://prayingincolor.com/celebrating-advent-at-home 
She even has a free study guide for her nativity book available.  It is fantastic!  I pray these resources will be as much of a blessing to you as they have been to our family.  The following post tells about how one of MacBeth's books has impacted us this Christmas.




  When I began to read The Season of the Nativity I was amazed with how many wonderful ideas there are in the book to help make the holidays more about the real Gift of the season.  There are ideas that I could use in my personal journey through advent as well ideas to bless the entire family. There are even activities that grandparents could use with grandchildren to help teach them about Jesus. Individual ideas could be incorporated into Sunday School classes as well.
     MacBeth teaches that the advent season is about waiting.  In our instant society when things happen at the click of a button it is great to be reminded to anticipate and embrace waiting.  Christmas is a great opportunity to teach our children about waiting.  And Jesus is worth the wait.  It is important to take time, each year, to practice waiting as to teach our children how to wait on the Lord.
     Advent candles are a great visual picture of waiting. I grew up in a denomination that used Advent candles and each year I was always so excited about Advent.  This year is the first year that we have had advent candles in our home.   We used ideas from this book and made added our own version as well.  We have a taper candle for each week and and I bought small white candles to burn for the each day of the 12 days leading up to Christmas.  I chose a large white candle shaped like a tree to light on Christmas Day.  I never dreamed how much our kids would love lighting these candles.  We have had candlelit breakfasts and dinners.  This morning our youngest begged to light them herself.  She was thrilled that there were more candles to light.  She is really seeing Christmas draw nearer.
     My favorite addition to our Christmas season is going to be about the days AFTER Christmas.  Traditionally, the weeks after Christmas can be a bit of a letdown. All our thoughts and celebration all typically lead to the 25th of December.  MacBeth encourages us to celebrate the birth but to not stop there.  She suggests hanging stars around the house and remember the star that celebrated Jesus arrival AND lead the wise men to the Christ Child.  I am planning a dinner for after Christmas where we have a cake with a hidden star as well as games and a skit about the Wise Men.  It is going to be a night of celebration and fun.
     Our family has been so blessed by the suggestions from this book to our holiday.  And I look forward to making more additions next year as well.  The bottom line is we just can not have too much of Jesus at Christmas.  I pray that you and your family might be as blessed by this book as we have!
  May your holidays be blessed with peace and joy as you look forward to the birth of the King.