Christmas Traditions

I have always been an old soul. Even as a child I would think about Christmas traditions I wanted to start when I had children. This year we started three new traditions that we hope will help Will remember what Christmas is really about.

1. On Christmas Eve, we read the Christmas story from the Bible and sang Christmas carols while John played the guitar and Will played the xylophone.

2. I heard about this tradition a couple years ago and thought it was a wonderful idea. Jesus, the most important person in the world, only got three presents--gold, frankincense, and myrrh. So we limited our gifts to three per person.

We also wanted to make sure we include gifts that teach about Jesus since it's His birthday, so in addition to the three gifts, Will got some Bible stories. I may try to include these in the three gifts in the future, but I already had three wrapped when I remembered the Bible stories this year.

3. For dessert, we had a birthday cake for Jesus. If anyone has any great cake ideas for the future, please let me know. This year I tried making a red velvet cake for the first time. Unfortunately, there was no red food coloring at the grocery, so Jesus had a purple velvet cake. He's royalty, so I figured that fit.


These were pretty simple things, but they, in addition to reading different children's versions of the Christmas story to Will every night for the past month, made Christmas much more meaningful this year. Now we're ready to take on the New Year! We'd also love to hear your Jesus Christmas traditions.