Christmas is coming...

I love Christmas.

I also love the word intent.

A couple years ago John and I had a lot of talks about how to make our life and traditions more intentional. Instead of just living, or go off of what every body else did we were going to be intentional in our actions.

And thus began how we do Christmas.

I belong to a Church rich in symbols, however I find a lot of people are very apprehensive about symbolism and how to interpret symbols. John and I decided to use Christmas as a time to teach our son about symbols. We have tried to make Christmas intentional, symbolic and lots of fun, and yes we feel we can have all three :)

The first thing we decided to attack was Santa. I am personally not a fan of lying to my child and Santa is a lie. I know that every family needs to do what is best for them. But we opted out of Santa. We don't go around telling him Santa isn't true, we tell him about the real Saint Nick and say the Santa in books is just like any other character in books-not real, but a symbol of a great man. 

Caleb is also extremely literal, he tells me he thinks it is ridiculous that people actually think reindeer can fly. I have a feeling that even if we did do Santa he would have figured it out by now. 

The next step was our presents. I spent hours researching what other families do and came up with what I felt worked for our family. John and I talked about it and we thought it was worth a shot. John especially hates consumerism. 

We do four gifts. One is completely fun and from "Santa." Then we go off the idea of the three wise men. I read a lot of scholarly articles about the gifts and what they really meant. I especially like this one because it is short and sweet, but there are some very long in depth ones out there that are fun to read if you are like me and like to read about history and religion. 

We do ours slightly different from what I have read, but I think the idea is to find whatever works for your family. 

I love that gold showed that the Wise Men knew who they were seeing, the King of Kings and Prince of Peace. Our family does one gift that shows we know who that individual is and what makes them unique. If you have spent much time with my son you know he is about the most imaginative little boy in the world. His gift has always been something that helps him create and use his imagination. John is huge into the outdoors and views that as a great way for our family to connect, so he often gets outdoors items. And I get baking stuff :) 

Frankincense was used to worship. So we get something that helps us worship. Caleb always gets church books, John gets white shirts or ties and I get a journal. We have done other things but the idea is something that helps us to get closer to God.

Myrrh is the hard one and people interpret it in a lot of different ways. The general consensus from Biblical scholars is that myrrh was given because the Wise Men knew Baby Jesus would one day die for them. The above mentioned article states that myrrh was used by the wealthy to make their home smell more pleasant. I read another article that mentioned it was used as a comforting sense (almost like lavender oil of today). So we do something that comforts. Caleb loves to read and it is very soothing to him, so sometimes he gets books. Last year he got a drum set because he loves to hit things and make noise :) John has gotten iTunes gift cards because he can't fall asleep unless he is listening to music. 

I just read my friend's blog that suggested having stockings being consumable items like gift cards, candy or membership to a children's museum. John and I just talked and we are going to try that this year.

We have also asked grandparents to support us in this and have limited them to three gifts. Anything we get beyond three from each parent we give to charity. I feel like a lot of times parents can control themselves but grandma's can't :)

The other thing we do is a Christ-centered advent calendar. I remember as a child my family trying to have a little bit of family time each night during December. I really love making and spending time with family during the holidays. We have used our traditions and found ways to tie them back to the Savior (gingerbread houses-the wise man built his house upon a rock, Christmas lights-light of Christ). 

Each year we pick a theme for the year and we try to focus our scriptures or stories around that aspect of Christ's life and ministry. One year we did faith, hope and charity, this year we are going to do peace. By reading scriptures and doing activities that relate to the idea of peace we hope to better remember Christ as the true source of peace (once I get it put together I will post it). I love traditions but I also love trying new things. I have found this to be a perfect way to keep some of our favorite traditions as well as try new things to help us celebrate our Savior's birth, life, death and resurrection. This allows for flexibility which we need because our life has never been 9-5 normal. This year we will most likely be spending the better half of December in hotels moving around the country. However, I plan to come up with activities that we can do wherever we are so that we can still enjoy the holiday season (we are thinking Christmas tree in the car and nativity scene on the dashboard). But every night we will make time to read a scriptures and think about Christ. 

We also do a family service project once a week in December. My greatest Christmas memories as a child were saving our coins throughout the year and then donating them to a charity. I hardly remember a single present I got but I remember driving to Salt Lake in our VW van and dropping off the jar and feeling so good that children in need could now have shoes. My friend made a list of service projects and I love my cousin's idea for a book drive for children's hospitals. Maybe it is simple or elaborate, I just want Caleb to know we serve. 

I am a HUGE believer in doing what is right for your family, you know your family better than anyone else. I am just sharing my ideas and traditions because they have helped us. I do encourage all to take a minute and really think about what they are doing for Christmas-is it intentional? Is it building your family or your faith? We all can accomplish the same goals in different ways. That is what I love about life!