Christmas Makeover: Celebrate with Purpose

FOCUS OF CHRISTMAS
Give your Christmas a makeover with this practical approach to help your family learn what it means to truly celebrate their Savior. In the bustle of the Christmas season, it can be easy to get swept up in all of the things to do. But it’s important to pause and remember that our priority should be to spend time celebrating Christ’s birth and not forget to invite Jesus to His own party. Christmas is far more than a celebration of an event from long ago or a modern holiday centered around shopping. Mindfully, take time to listen to how God continues to speak through the Christmas story as the Gospel narratives centered around the birth of Jesus provide encouragement and revelation concerning the love of God and His wisdom for us today. Melissa explains, “A total Christmas makeover doesn’t mean scrapping your holiday traditions or adding ten more to your list. Instead, it is a personal time of reflection to evaluate how your Christmas practices align with some biblical concepts of celebration. Passover, festivals, and feasts were instituted by God to help His people remember who He is and what He has done.” During the holiday season, it’s not about throwing out all of your Christmas traditions but it is all about prioritizing what is most important which might mean prioritizing the traditions that point us to Christ’s birth, rediscovering the intent behind the practices we treasure, or incorporating some new rituals that will help us share God’s message of love with those around us. Melissa’s family traditions have changed over the years.

“I’m less concerned about doing what I think I ‘should’ do and more focused on spending time with the Savior I celebrate. I still love many of the rituals of Christmas and continue to decorate, attend parties, incorporate family devotions and prepare for special church services. I’m just more OK with saying ‘no’ to some things.”

TOTAL CHRISTMAS MAKEOVER
This 31-day devotional presents key scriptures, ideas to implement with each reading, and questions for reflection to guide you in rediscovering rituals, relationship, and rest to connect you more deeply with Christ this holiday season. As Melissa studied the Book of Numbers while writing her Bible study on the topic, she noticed three elements included in the festivities and began thinking about how to apply them to her personal Christmas celebrations like the one mentioned below. She devotes a section of her book to:

• Ritual: Special activities out of the ordinary routine were planned to help remember what God has done.
• Relationships: Time spent together preparing special foods eating, gathering in holy assembly, and explaining tradition to children.
• Rest: Regular work set aside for planned times of celebration and rest from activity to allow for reflection on God.

One of the Spoelstra family rituals/traditions include mom and dad having each of their four children pick an evening to share their own devotion on a Christmas topic of their choosing (star, angels, wiseman, shepherds, etc.) They have to include a fun activity (game or craft) as well as reading from Scripture and discussion questions.