Reclaiming Christmas

"✨🎄 Mery Christmas 🎄✨ May your heart be filled with joy & peace this festive season. 🎁🌟 #ErNabal #ChristmasCheer"

We’ve entered that time of year, holiday season, and its maelstrom of expectations. Considering the rabble of picking the right gifts or the guilt of the last-minute holiday parties, it is understandable that the true meaning of Christmas is overwhelmed by the madness rather than Christmas quotes for the true meaning of Christmas. For many families, the holiday season is stressful and overwhelming, as they try to bring the peaceful, joyous celebration to life that they envisioned.

The sacred meaning of Christmas has been sacrificed at the altar of commerce. Every moment, messages are telling us that happiness lies within worldly pleasures, driving consumeristic behavior that leaves the average Joe drained and unfilled.

It is the “things” of Christmas that often take center stage when Christmas comes around, and certainly cause us to forget the real reason for the season: the birth of Jesus Christ. The true joy of celebrating the arrival of the Savior is drowned out by holiday shopping, making the perfect dish, and the never-ending search to make it the “perfect” Christmas.

So this year forget the commercialism and bring back the true spirit of Christmas. One of the clearest ways to do this is to recover the ancient Christian tradition of Advent.

Advent is a time to prepare, a time to center our hearts and minds on the coming of Jesus Christ. It is a time to meditate and acknowledge our need for salvation and to look toward the coming of our Savior. It’s time to take a break, an experience worth having, to be filled with a heart of gratitude and repose.

When I look around my culture and see a creeping further away from keeping Christmas as it ought to be kept, I can see Advent is the antidote for all that. By practicing this holy tradition, we can reclaim Christmas, and experience what true Christmas is.

Preparing for the Prince of Peace: Advent Activities for Families

This is part of what I love about Advent, such a good way to get children involved in what Christmas is all about. Families can explain to their children the story of Jesus' birth and why He made the ultimate sacrifice for us instead of using this season simply to think about Santa and gifts. By incorporating these faith-filled activities into your family’s Advent celebration you will be laying the groundwork for your children to build treasured memories, as they deepen their understanding of the true meaning of Christmas.

Here are some suggestions to inspire you and your family to prepare for Christmas:

• Advent calendars, with their little doors or pockets to be opened that lead to a sense of excitement and anticipation, counting down children until Christmas. Instead of stuffing it with candy or tiny toys, you could fill it with inspirational thoughts, bible verses, or simple acts of kindness. Make Words Count — Have your child read the message or check off the checklist for the random act of kindness to encourage generosity and thoughtfulness each day.

• Advent Wreath – Each week of Advent we will light one candle representing hope, peace, joy, and love. Discuss with your kids what each of the candles represents and how each of these traits ties into the Christmas story. You could also incorporate this in your family devotions, reading a Christmas story or singing a carol that teaches the theme of the week.

• Family Devotions — Read Christmas stories, sing carols, and pray together every day. Set a time each evening to have family devotions, even if just for a few minutes. Look for children’s Bibles and devotionals that are age-appropriate and share the Christmas story in a way that is engaging and easy to understand.

Acts of Service: Involve your children in acts of service such as volunteering at a local shelter, donating toys to a children’s hospital, or assisting elderly neighbors with their chores. These random deeds not only teach children to give back, but they help bond with Christmas itself, the spirit of love and compassion.

Adding these fun activities to your celebrations will help build a rich and merry Christmas season for your family. You make the holiday focus less of a consumer-driven frenzy and more of a time for reflection, gratitude, and spiritual growth.

It was time to rediscover the joy of Christmas with serverless

The chaos of the holidays makes it difficult sometimes to remember the real meaning of the season. Between gift-giving and social events, the stress of holiday cooking, and the pressure to create the “perfect” Christmas, we can easily lose perspective on what is important.

Listen to the words of the small boy who defined love as “what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and you listen.” It reminds us that the essence of Christmas begins with the people in our lives and the love that permeates the atmosphere and fills the air.

May we, this Christmas, find space for peace and contemplation amid such upheaval. Let us have time for those who are dear to us, for creating happy memories together, making stories, singing carols — simply for time together. And so instead of turning outward to the pageantry of the holiday season, may we go inward and have an attitude of gratitude and thankfulness for the relatively little that we already have in our lives.

We can cultivate this spirit of peace by:

• Mindful living: Take a couple of minutes a day to simply be and breathe in the sights, sounds, and smells of the season.

• Limit screen time: Turn off technology and spend quality time with family and friends.

• Sleep well: Make sure you do not miss your sleep, and also take proper rest during the festivities.

• Generous gestures: Whether it volunteering your time at a local shelter, donating to a charity campus or simply offering a helping hand to your neighbor.

So, this Advent season, remember that is why Jesus came: to be God with us and then enter into the joy of the real Christmas. God bless and may we find the true meaning of the season with peace, love, and gratitude.

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"🎄✨ Reclaim Christmas! 🎁✨ Ditch the stress, embrace Advent. 🙏 Focus on Jesus, love, & family. ❤️ Create lasting memories. ✨ #MerryChristmas"

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