Handling the holidays is always full of excitement. Most of the time it is filled with fun things to do and meaningful traditions; however, when you have a preschooler there is no telling what will come next. The real excitement is surviving the season sometimes.
My wife is a very creative woman and always coming up with some new thing to do each year. The kids almost always enjoy this new event; we do not always enjoy the prep work that goes into them. Where do you draw the line?
We fall back to our parental priorities. We want our children to be independent thinkers filled with character. We teach them the lessons of the Bible and how to live by Christian principles. Therefore, when it comes to Christmas, we are willing to put the extra time into something that will teach them about the Biblical meaning of the holiday and will pass on some of the other distractions.
One such tradition is an advent tree. Each day in December the kids open the slot for that day. In there is a little piece of candy and a Bible verse. We also wrapped 25 Christmas books and they get to open one each night. Then as we sit to the read the book, we start with the verse and talk about what it means. Then they eat their candy and we read the book together.
When you have a long day at work and the tedious night time schedule runs long, we often would love to skip this; however, it is important to us and the kids. We have done this for the past four years and will continue with it for years to come.
Since we do this, we have decided to forego some other things that other parents do. Elf on the shelf is one that we decided against. It is fun seeing the cool little setups and the creativity that many parents come up with; however, we do not have the time for this if we want to have time for each other at night.
Nobody likes the Pinterest mom who seems to have infinite time in her day. You know the one who makes everything look fun and exciting and perfect. The reality is that is not possible for 99.9% of the population. The rest of us have to pick and choose. When you do choose, make sure your choice aligns with the priorities you set for how you want to raise your child.
(Photo courtesy of Rixie)