How the Johnson Family Celebrates CHRISTmas and New Years!

Today I'd like to share with you how we celebrate CHRISTmas, most likely, because it's different than most families we know.  We are not saying we are celebrating CHRISTmas the "right" way or the "only" way.  This is just how God has laid upon our hearts to celebrate Jesus' birth.

Growing up, both my husband and I celebrated CHRISTmas the traditional way (except without Santa).  Going into our marriage, we did the same.  However, with the birth of our first child, we had realized we wanted something different. 

The following is a list of reasons that got us to thinking about WHY we wanted to do something different than how we were currently celebrating CHRISTmas.

1)  We did not want our children to associate CHRISTmas with receiving!!  With receiving often comes selfishness and coveting.  Certainly, in order to give, SOMEONE has to receive.  We think receiving is wonderful...we just don't want it to be the focus of CHRISTmas.

2)  We wanted to celebrate Christ's birth, not just some holiday that we use as an excuse to get presents and to celebrate ourselves.

3)  At this time of year, many people are hurting and we wanted to help others (we feel like that is one of the best CHRISTmas gifts we could give to Jesus on His birthday)!

4)  We did not want to pressure ourselves with feeling like we HAD to get everyone a gift.  Often we found ourselves buying someone a gift we wouldn't normally have because they got us one.  Or maybe a family member spent a certain amount on a gift for us and we felt obligated to spend the same amount.  We also found it financially straining to purchase everything at one time of year (especially now with baby #2's birthday only three days after CHRISTmas).



These are some of the things we wanted to correct in our family's CHRISTmas celebration.  Therefore, we decided not to receive any gifts in the month of December (nor give any traditional gifts).  So, we told our friends and family our plan, and "most" of them respectfully wait until January 1st (which is the day we have chosen to have our gift exchange).  We are grateful when someone gives us a gift and certainly will accept any gift that is given.  But December 25th is not our family's time for the exchanging of gifts (I'll explain about New Year's later).

We also play a gift exchange game on CHRISTmas at our family gathering.  We feel that this is fine as long as it's about fun and fellowship and not about the gift.  If we feel our children are only playing for the gift, we will stop playing.  It's great to enjoy the gifts we receive during this time, but it is not to be our focus and purpose for playing.

Anyways, so why did we feel like this would help us with our issues listed above?   Well, we wanted to take the focus off of ourselves and put it back on Jesus.  Think about it for a moment.  If it were your birthday and no one got you a gift, you'd probably be kind of sad.  Not only did no one get you a gift, but they gave everyone else one in "honor" of your birthday, instead.  We just wanted to celebrate Jesus' birthday and not "Christmas." 

With that goal in mind, our entire purpose in December (although we should be doing this all year round) is to do something each day for Jesus for His birthday.  We feel like the best ways we can do this is to:

1)  Continue to Daily Grow in Him and Follow His Will
2)  Serve Others as Christ Did

3)  Share the Gospel with Others


So, everyday in December, we have decided to do one of those things.  One day we may spend all day handing out tracts.  The next day, we may make cookies for our firefighters, policemen, and Emergency Room Staff.  Another day, we may pack shoeboxes for those in need.  We might one day help a widow with something he/she needs.  We may take a day and visit the nursing home.

There is an unlimited amount of things we can do each day.  Some take creativity, some take money, but they all take prayer!  We just try and seek the things that God would have us do that year.  We want Him to smile when He gets His present each day! 

We also make sure we are reading the CHRISTmas story every year on CHRISTmas Day!  Singing songs is always fun too!

NEW YEAR'S DAY

 

 

Now before you think our children are disadvantaged, they do have a day for gifts like all other children.  While we don't go all out, they do have some wrapped gifts (mostly useful items rather than a bunch of toys).  We want our children to not only learn how wonderful it is to give, but to learn to be gracious receivers as well.

When our children get older, I have been thinking about playing a game.  We can practice giving each other terrible gifts (wrap up some toilet paper, put some spoiled food in a gift bag, etc).  We can have fun picking crazy gifts.  The point is to have a good reaction when you get a terrible gift.  It's about learning to be gracious for the thought of the gift, as opposed to being upset that you didn't get what you wanted. 

For example, one of my children may get me some shampoo for my birthday because they remember hearing that I had made the comment last week that I needed to get some.  Of course, I probably have already purchased it, and shampoo is not typically what you would expect to get as a gift.  However, I need to be concerned with the thoughtfulness of the gift, rather than the gift itself.  That is what we want to teach our children.


There is no special thing about opening gifts on New Years as opposed to CHRISTmas.  We just felt that it would be difficult to focus on others when we're concerned about what was under the tree for ourselves. 

Not to mention, our children will be accustomed to celebrating on New Years (since it will be all they have ever done), and won't know any different.  Some benefits to doing it this way are:


1)  We are more available to see other family at CHRISTmas when they are off from work since we do not have something planned for that day.

2)  We get 50% or more off presents because we can purchase them after CHRISTmas.  We can either get someone twice as much, or spend half of our budget!

3)  We are focused on the real meaning of CHRISTmas since we are daily, purposely doing things for Jesus.




What are some ways your family celebrates CHRISTmas?  What are ways you purpose to make CHRIST the center of this season?  What kind of traditions do you have?  I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!


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