December Family Nights

Each week when my family was young (preschool, elementary school and even high school-aged), our family set one night a week aside as a family night. These ideas, with a calendar are included on my website under the Advent tab. Please feel free to use these ideas with your family.

Family nights on my website are set around the following weekly themes: 1) Prophecy; 2) The Journey of Joseph & Mary; 3) The Shepherds; 4) The Magi. Family nights include: a special meal, an opportunity to read a portion of the Christmas story, times of singing, and surprises.

During the week of November 28, I try to share with my family how God told us about the birth of Jesus even before He came. To reinforce this children can help bake bread. What starts as dry ingredients turns into a lump, which rises, and then with baking becomes the bread we eat. In a similar fashion, the Gospel began as an idea, as God shared parts of his plan through the Old Testament, where we can began to understand the idea. Then Jesus was born in Bethlehem. We read scripture from Luke 1:1-4 with a focus on the prophets.

We set up the tree this day; the evergreen is a promise of eternal life. We set out Nativity sets, which tell the story of Christmas. We will eat the bread as part of our dinner, and sing Christmas carols. We will also look at pictures of former Christmases, and talk about what we want to see happen this year.

During the week of December 5, I share with my family how God announced the birth of Jesus to Joseph and Mary. In response, the couple traveled to Bethlehem where Jesus was born (a “journal” of this trip can be found in the book Advent Journeys). We bake a Birthday Cake in order to tell the story of Christmas from Luke 2:1-7. We sing songs, and then eat dinner as a picnic by the Christmas tree. Joseph and Mary ate picnic lunches as they traveled. We sing songs during this celebration.

During the week of December 12, I share with my family the story of the shepherds. During the week I try to take them to see a pasture with sheep in it. For supper on Shepherd week, I build a fire in the fireplace. We roast hot dogs, and can have s'mores. The shepherds cooked their meal over a real fire. We tell the story of the Shepherds from Luke 2:8-20. We string popcorn on the Christmas tree. We also prepare Christmas cards. As the angels announced the Birth of Jesus to the shepherds, we tell our friends of our love for Jesus.

During the week of December 19, I will tell the story of the Magi. Our special foods are sugar cookies and eggnog because the Magi lived such rich lives. We might eat steak, or a similar meal. Or we go out (if not planned for another night) to burger king, where we wear crowns, and talk about the Kings. We read the story from Matthew 2:1-12. We also look at the decorations on our tree.

Christmas is for sharing; please consider sharing the book Advent Journeys this year with others. A reading each day will enhance this season and make it more meaningful than other years. As you read, share your readings with others to encourage them. I have been amazed as people shared with me the blessing they found in reading this book. Several non-believers and skeptics were given this book, were captured by the first chapter and read the book, discovering for the first time the real meaning of the Christmas story. Pray about who you know who would benefit by reading Advent Journeys ... and then order copies (so you will have them to give to friends on Thanksgiving Day). The publisher’s website (CreateSpace owned by Amazon.com) is listed here: Order the book through CreateSpace. When you give Advent Journeys to others as a gift, you will reap the blessing of having them share from their perspectives the discoveries and joys they receive from the book.

Advent: A Family idea

Many years ago, when my children were very young, I read a book about Advent.  The author said during the Advent (Christmas) season people are more interested in spiritual things than any other time of the year.  The book gave many ideas for sharing Christmas with others.  In one chapter the book presented an idea that the best gift which could be given within families at Christmas was time.

The author said that Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year with activities, parties, shopping and travel.  Often we rob our children of the quality time they need and deserve in order to accomplish the tasks which seem so urgent.  The book suggested one way to reposition our family into their proper place of importance is to plan activites for the family and place them on the calendar as appointments.

I took the author’s suggestion, and created a calendar.  The first appointment I placed on the calendar was to eat either breakfast or dinner with my children every day. (Depending on school and church schedules this could vary … and was not easy to do.  But because I looked ahead and put this priority as an appointment, it did happen most days).  During our meal together we would read two short scriptures which were part of the Christmas story (I have a suggested calendar posted at http://www.koshercopy.com/ - look for the tab on the top bar which says “2015 Advent”).  I also placed on the calendar at least one activity per day which connected with the Christmas story.

Sometimes (when I was busy) the activity would be something our children could do with very little guidance (color wrapping paper; design and color cards for grandparents).  Other times the activities were more involved.  We went on field trips, acted out parts of the story, and every week we took one evening for a family night.

Family nights involved a dinner together.  Sometimes we tied these to the story, such as, during the week we highlighted the angel’s visit to the shepherds we built a fire in our fireplace and roasted hot dogs.  (I am sure the shepherds built a fire on cool nights - and because they had a fire, they must have roasted hot dogs and s’mores).  We also sang songs, told stories, and created skits in which we acted.  (My daughters like the skit where one of them was Joseph, the other was Mary, my wife was the Innkeeper, and I was the donkey.  Yes, Mary got to ride the donkey with Joseph leading).

All of these activities created memories.  And these memories proved to be much more powerful than the gifts we gave on Christmas day.  The end result: Christmas is about Jesus.

I have placed on our website the pamphlet with activities.  These activities are linked with our new book Advent Journeys.  The Journey diaries of Zechariah, Joseph, the Shepherd, the Magi and the Maccabee can be understood by most children in third grade and above.  The scripture (Calendar) along with the journal and activities shared with family members can lead to a most memorable Christmas.  Plan ahead and give it a try … starting the Sunday after Thanksgiving.