If we are not careful, Christmas can quickly become a time when I can worry about what we get and to lose a look at what is important. To spend time with relatives, share gratitude, give thoughtful gifts and share them with those who are less lucky – these are some of the things to concentrate on vacation. When my children got older, I worked hard to find creative ways to teach them joy over Christmas.
I shared that we are trying to just keep Christmas by buying a gift for every family member. We enjoyed celebrating Advent, a time of waiting and preparing for Christmas. Another tradition that we do every year is to observe the St. Nicholas Day on December 6th. On this day we celebrate the real person who helped those in his community to have a brighter vacation.
When my children are grown up, I want you to remember the fun we had together during the holidays instead of giving the gifts (or not). I would also like to give you the feeling of helping others. Since we already have so much, it is important to me that we spread other Christmas people.
Teaching the Christmas joy of my children is a mixture of family traditions and things to spread other holiday joy. Here are some options for bringing my children to Christmas joy.
Random friendly file
One of my favorite methods to teach my children over Christmas are that they do random friendliness for families, friends or strangers. Instead of an eleven on the shelf, we have a Christmas angel. Every day during the advent she comes to visit and brings a proposal for things that my children can do for someone else that day. It is a great way to encourage them and give them ideas to spread others.
If you don’t have a Christmas gel, you can still do beautiful things for others. There are many printable diagrams on Pinterest that offer you great ideas for spreading joy. You can print out and put on your fridge to give your family some ideas. Or create your own list of special things you want to do. This is a great way to involve your children!
Here are some things that we have enjoyed in the past:
- Gifting gifts for postal institutions and delivery drivers
- Create cards for grandparents “I love you” for grandparents
- Donate our savings to various charity organizations
- Bring the man who rings a cup of coffee in the grocery store, the bell
- Prepare meals for families with new babies
- Paid for the food of an older woman who checked out in front of us who only had a few articles
- Completion of vouchers and dollar bills on the (healthy) corridors in the grocery store
- Homemade lotion bars or teas give to older or hospital -bound people
- Payment of parking meters for people parked on the street
- Make cookies and deliver to first aiders
These ideas are small possibilities on how we can spread the joy for vacation, but everyone is a simple and entertaining way of teaching children.
Secret Santa
Another way to spread the Christmas joy is to be a secret Santa Claus for a family in our community. We contact a local church or a domestic violence to see who is in need this season, receive a wish list for your family members and have a shopping spree to buy gifts. Then we deliver the gifts and some food for several meals and some gift cards.
This was a great way for my children to learn the joy of giving others, even if we don’t see the view of their faces when they open the gifts. Check whether non -profit organizations in your community have families who have to be sponsored.
Volunteer work
If your children are older, a great way to teach (and spread) Christmas joy is by teaching volunteer work. There are several organizations in our community that sponsor toys or jackets. You can register to organize the donations before the event or to help on site on the day of the event and help families to make their selection.
Another funny thing is to contact a local food bench, sort food donations and organize them for families. Some churches have food banks that also need volunteers. If you can, take your children on an aa -eating hunt with canned food to collect food from neighbors to donate to food bank.
Gifts for others
Another way to learn Christmas joy is to make gifts for our loved ones. Usually we choose some funny things that you can do for the grandparents, our neighbors and each other. It is great, creative and clever together, and we put a lot of love in the gifts we make. It is a great way for my children to learn something about Christmas joy because it teaches them to think of others, to decide what they like and put their time and effort into creating something special.
We love to wrap our gifts in environmentally friendly packaging paper. You can make your own with simple things in your house: old newspapers, butcher paper or packaging materials. Your children can also paint or draw special pictures on the homemade packaging paper. It’s almost like a bonus gift!
Families Christmas activities
We tend to have downtime before and after the holidays, so I like to spend this time with my children who do funny Christmas activities. Sometimes we do handicrafts (which we can share with others) and sometimes we take an excursion like driving around and watching Christmas lights while we sip on hot cocoa.
We also made Christmas decorations-from salt dough ornaments to natural garlands. Gathering to do things that will brighten our home is a good way to teach Christmas joy. It’s great to see how your end product is lined up on the tree or fireplace!
Celebrate with Christmas traditions
Our family has many Christmas traditions! One of my favorites is that we spend most of the Christmas day in our pajamas. We will open our gifts and spend the day hanging off. And although we are in our pajamas, we will often have company or play with other children in the neighborhood. We could play games together, bake cookies or watch our favorite films.
Another of our traditions is that we put aside for some time during the holidays to go through our things and find objects that we can donate to others. Not only things we want to get rid of, but things that we could share with others. We find a way to give you for someone who needs you or donates to a local organization.
If you think about traditions, you can start with your children who enjoy Christmas time, helps you to plan times together. What are some great things that your city has to offer during the holidays? How do you remember to have spent time with your family during the holidays? Is there anything you want to continue?
If you teach our children the joy of Christmas, it is important to recognize that the vacation goes all the more than just gifts. It helps them take care of them for others and create traditions with them, they help them to recognize that life gives more than material things.
How do you teach your children Christmas joy? What do you give back some options? What are some of your favorite traditions?