Ways To Give

‘Tis the Season to Learn?

Written by Patricia Chadwick

I love the Christmas season – it is always magical for me, even at mid-life. I have always made the Advent season special at my house. My Christmas enthusiasm for the holidays has spread on to my children and they still can’t wait until we set up our tree the Monday after Thanksgiving.

I try to make the holiday season a learning season. During the Thanksgiving holiday I dig out all my Advent books and Christmas planners and make up family plans for the month of December. Our season begins with the lighting of the Advent wreath on the first Sunday of Advent and we move into setting up the Christmas tree the first Monday of the Advent Season. I have used an Advent calendar with pockets that hold a slip of paper with the day’s special activity written on it since my kids were small. I still use it for them as teens. You wouldn’t believe how they rush down in the morning to be the one to open it (the first one down to the breakfast table gets to take the paper from the day’s “pocket” and read it to the family.

Below are some of the special activities that my teens still enjoy:

• Take time to research some of the various Christmas traditions of different countries from around the globe and the meaning of various symbols used in the American Christmas.
• We cook special Christmas dishes from around the world.
• Listen to a Christmas book on tape together ( this year we will be listening to A Christmas Carol from Focus on the Family’s Radio Theater).
• Read aloud various Christmas titles.
• Write out invitations, Christmas cards, and thank you notes together. Many hands make light work.
• Watch Christmas videos together. Each year I break out my collection of holiday films and we watch some classics like White Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, and the wonderful The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (my teens still LOVE this video).
• Participate in local Christmas activities as a family. We have gone to “Holiday Tours” at a Living History Museum in the area and our local “Christmas in the City.”
• Most importantly open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke and read together as the story unfolds about our Savior being born as a baby in Bethlehem. Discuss the events surrounding Jesus’ birth and the people who “missed Christmas” even though it was staring them in the face.

If we plan for them, the Christmas season holds so many opportunities for family fun, learning, and togetherness. I encourage you to make the most of the holidays with your teens. These are memories they will never forget and traditions they will take with them as they begin their own families.

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