The Gathering Church Advent and Christmas Family Devotional

2015

What is Advent? Advent is the season leading to Christmas. It is a time of joyous expectancy.. of longing for redemption.. of repentance and of hope. These readings are meant to be read on each of the four Sundays of Advent and on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. Many people enjoy using an Advent Wreath as a centerpiece for their Advent devotions. An Advent Wreath consists of five candles: three purple/blue, one pink, and one white. On the first Sunday of Advent we light the first purple candle. This is often called the Prophesy/Hope Candle. Our readings and prayers and songs center around the promises in scripture that a Redeemer is coming, the Son of David, the merciful King who will reign forever and bring justice.. He's coming. This week we cultivate repentance, expectation, and preparation. On the second Sunday we light the first and second purple candles. The second purple candle is often called the Bethlehem/Love Candle. The focus of our readings and prayers and songs is preparation. This week we get ready to receive Christ, to make room for Him. On the third Sunday we light the first two purple candles and the pink candle. The pink candle is often called the Shepherds'/Joy Candle. The change in color signifies a brightening.. this is the week read of the joyful proclamation. The long­awaited Son is here! On the fourth Sunday we light the first two purple candles, the pink candle, and the third purple candle. This last purple candle is often called the Angels'/Peace Candle. This week we read and pray and sing of the fulfillment of God's promises in Christ. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning we light all the candles, including the white candle in the center. This is the Christ Candle. He is here. He has come. This reading guide is meant to be read by families and friends gathered together on each Sunday of Advent. We have included hymns and carols for each week. If you would like a daily devotional, some resources are listed at the back of this booklet along with ideas from some of our elders and others leaders' families. We also encourage you to spend two days each week meditating on each weekly passage (there are three passages each week, so you could spend Monday/Tuesday on the Prophesy, Wednesday/Thursday on the Psalm, and Friday/Saturday on the Gospel).

1st Sunday – 29 November 2015 Prophesy/Hope

Isaiah 33:2­6 O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.

Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.

At the tumultuous noise peoples flee; when you lift yourself up, nations are scattered,

and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; as locusts leap, it is leapt upon.

The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,

and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;

the fear of the Lord is Zion's treasure.

Psalm 130 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!

O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive

to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,

O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness,

that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,

and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord

more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.

And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Luke 1:26­38 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph,of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to

discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father

David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

And the angel departed from her.

O Come, O Come Immanuel Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

2nd Sunday – 6 December 2015 Bethlehem/Love

Isaiah 42:1­16 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street;

a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.

Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:

“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people,

a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind,

to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other,

nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass,

and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants. Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the habitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare his praise in the coastlands. The Lord goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war he stirs up his

zeal; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes. For a long time I have held my peace; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant. I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools. And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the

darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.

Psalm 132 Remember, O Lord, in David's favor,

all the hardships he endured, how he swore to the Lord

and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, “I will not enter my house

or get into my bed, I will not give sleep to my eyes

or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord,

a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.” Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of Jaar. “Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool!”

Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.

Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy.

For the sake of your servant David, do not turn away the face of your anointed one.

The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: “One of the sons of your body

I will set on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant

and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit on your throne.”

For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place:

“This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread.

Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy.

There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine.”

Luke 1:39­56

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And

blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;

he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;

he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers,

to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.

(For more reading read through verse 79.)

O Little Town of Bethlehem O Come All Ye Faithful

3rd Sunday – 13 December 2015 Shepherds/Joy

Micah 5:1­5a Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us;

with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,

from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.

And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.

Psalm 146 Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord, O my soul! I will praise the Lord as long as I live;

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Put not your trust in princes,

in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;

on that very day his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them,

who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed,

who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free;

the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;

the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations.

Praise the Lord!

Luke 2:1­20 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first

registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped

him in swaddling cloths andlaid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel

of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you

will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But

Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

What Child is This? Angels from the Realms of Glory

The First Noel

4th Sunday – 20 December 2015 Angels/Peace

Jeremiah 23:5­6 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be

saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

Psalm 24 The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,

the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false

and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord

and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah

Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O gates!

And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts,

he is the King of glory! Selah

Luke 2:22­38 And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous anddevout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he

took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,

according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation

that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin,and then as a widow until she was

eighty­four.She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of

Jerusalem.

Angels We Have Heard on High Hark, the Herald Angels Sing It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

Christmas (Eve) – 24 or 25 December 2015 Christ

Isaiah 9:2­7

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,

on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest,

as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor,

you have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult

and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it

with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Psalm 96

Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth!

Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations,

his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;

he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,

but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts!

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!

Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it;

let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy

before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth.

He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Titus 2:11­14

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self­controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessedhope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all

lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Go, Tell it on the Mountain God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Joy to the World

Christmas Season – the twelve days of Christmas

Christmas doesn't have to end after Christmas dinner. There are many ways to continue the celebration of Christ's coming (and anticipate His second coming!) during the days and weeks that follow. Memorize some of the birth story that you've been reading through Advent. Host Christmas parties after Christmas. Keep singing the Christmas hymns! Keep your tree lit until Epiphany. (Perhaps consider waiting to put your tree up until Christmas Eve?) Give gifts on each day of Christmas (Dec. 25 ­ Jan. 5).

Epiphany – 6 January 2016 Epiphany means Manifestation. Traditionally Epiphany is celebrated 12 days after Christmas. It celebrates the Manifestation of the King of kings ­ the Light of the world to all people; it celebrates Jesus' divinity and His power. It is often called Kings' Day, and remembers the wise men who came to worship Jesus (the wise men represent the nations). Thus, in some cultures, this is the day gifts are given instead of on Christmas. Isaiah 60 Matthew 2:1­12 Matthew 3:16­17 John 8:12 We Three Kings (Hymns/Songs with the theme of Light)

From the Zrust Family.. Every Christmas season, I believe it is possible that I get more excited than my children do. I love the Christmas tree, decorated with ornaments collected over my entire lifetime, sentiments of home and family. I love the lights and candles. I love decorating the house with branches, ornaments, and Christmas cards of beloved friends far and near. I love the familiar music that sings our Savior’s birth, and how our culture is suddenly infused with musical reminders of Christ’s invasion into this planet, into its darkness. But most of all, I love the focused celebration of that invasion, the celebration of new life bring hope and peace to a troubled, sin­sick people. Some of the ways that we focus on Christ in our home during the Christmas season are as follows: ­ We sing and worship, a LOT. There is constantly music flowing through our house, calling our hearts to refocus and praise. ­ For the past several years, beginning in November, we’ve used a devotional by Ann Voskamp called “A Jesus Advent Celebration” that has nightly readings with a corresponding ornament to hang on a “Jesse Tree”, a tree (or some obliging dogwood branches in our case), symbolizing our line of faith in the shoot that came up from the stump of Jesse, the long story of redemption from the son of David to us today. ­ Also for the past several years, we’ve striven to resist the materialistic emphasis our culture promotes in giving and receiving gifts, and we’ve chosen to celebrate Christ’s birth in giving Him gifts on His birthday. “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’” (Matthew 25:40). This has taken many forms, from giving goats, chickens and rabbits to impoverished families in India through Gospel for Asia, donating to water purification through Compassion International, buying earrings as gifts for sisters­in­law from the Starfish Project, or a handbag for Mom made by women in Haiti. This could take almost any form in any family, but the emphasis Christ seems to put on giving is specifically tied to giving to the poor. Our extended family are not all believers in Christ, so we’ve not imposed this standard on them and still participate in exchanging gifts with them, but we’d like to impress our children with the knowledge of the true purpose of celebrating Christmas, that it’s not our birthday after all, it’s Jesus’ birthday, and if we give gifts, it should be to Him. ­ And finally, to celebrate His birth, we have a birthday breakfast on Christmas morning, and it’s the only time of year I make homemade cinnamon rolls. We sing a few Christmas hymns, light candles, and worship and pray, thanking the Lord for sending Christ to be born on this earth, to grow and die for our sins. As we come into this Christmas season with all its songs and lights, let us turn our attention in greater depth to the One who came as a helpless baby to live and die, to deliver us from the domain of darkness and bring us into the kingdom of light (Colossians 1:12­14).

From the Cunningham Family..

Our family seeks to set the Advent season apart from the rest of the year and to make it both special and delightful. We start celebrating Christmastime the day after Thanksgiving by going to get a Christmas tree and by decorating our house. Here are some other things that our family does to make the season special: ­ Regularly, we will drive around the neighborhoods near our house and look at Christmas lights. Sometimes, this is as simple as taking the “long way home” from Community Group or from another evening outing. ­ We make a Jesse Tree by collecting small branches from outside and putting them in a large glass vase. We have 25 handmade Jesse Tree ornaments that we obtained from an ornament exchange; each ornament represents a part of the story of redemption. Every day, we hang an ornament on our Jesse Tree and read the Bible passage that goes along with that ornament. ­ We have an Advent candleholder. In the evenings, when we are home, we light the appropriate number of candles and sing Christmas songs. ­ For one special night, we all dress up and we take the kids out to a fancy dinner. ­ We have learned that the kids delight in giving each other gifts. In order to encourage this attitude without letting them spend too much of their own money (or our money in the case of the littlest kids), we have each child draw a name of one of their siblings out of a hat and they get a gift for that one person. This keeps the spending down to a minimum and also encourages them to pay attention to that one sibling, looking for clues as to what they might want or need. ­ We watch a couple of movies every year: The Sound of Music, Its a Wonderful Life. Except for our family movie choices, we try to limit media during the Christmas season. ­ Christmas Eve we go to church, Christmas morning we make a big breakfast, and Christmas Day we go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for a big family dinner.

From the Garfield Family..

Our favorite is the advent wreath and can be adapted to most ages. On the first Sunday of Advent we light the 1st candle and read an advent devotion. There are available for small children up to adult levels. We have used so many over the years I can't remember all. Ann VosKamp, Desiring God ministries, RC Sproul are good web­sites to go for resources. Each night we light the candle and read another devotional in consequent order. Each Sunday a new candle is lit until they are all lit. On Christmas Eve we light the large candle in the middle signifying the arrival of the Messiah. All the candles are now lit; the Light of the world has come! Then we read the Christmas story from Luke. I have a flannel board and the children love it when I use the flannel people and pieces to go with the Bible story. We also make a birthday cake and light the candles and sing happy birthday to Jesus. We provide an unbreakable nativity scene for smaller children and let them use the pieces to act out the story over and over again. Fisher­Price has a nice one. The past few years we have done Ann VosKamp's Jesse Tree Advent. This use to be available on her web­site free but now I think you have to buy her book which includes all of the cutouts and the devotional. Advent calendars are also a good way to celebrate with younger chidden. Every day the chidden get to open one door and read the verse or part of the Christmas story. There are many options with these. My favorite ones are the ones that have small objects that tell the gospel story to put up each day. The children look forward to opening the doors or putting up the objects every day. For outreach we always do some baking and write gospel centered cards with a personal message and take the food and notes around to all of our neighbors.Sometimes we would take small homemade gifts instead of baked goods. For many years we invited unbelieving neighbors and employees over for a dessert buffet or a dinner. Dan would read the Christmas story from the Bible and we would sing traditional Christmas carols. We have some amazing stories from these gatherings. An annual tradition for many years was for all of the members of our singles weekly Bible study to bake homemade cookies and bring them to our house. We would decorate boxes and then we would put a variety of cookies in each box with a tract or meaningful card. Then we would go from house to house in our neighborhood and sing traditional carols. We would give each home a box of homemade cookies. These are briefly just a few of the things we have done over the years to truly help our children and ourselves focus on the Lord and the sacredness of the season rather than the material emphasis which is all around us and to bring Christ to our neighbors and friends who do not yet know Him.

From the Hamilton Family..

Advent at the Hamilton Home: We rejoice that Jesus has come and we long for the day when Jesus comes again to make all things new. We pray that our Hamilton Family Christmas Traditions inspire a great anticipation in the hearts of our children. When we put up our Christmas tree, we put a small wooden manger that Sevrin’s dad made for us in front of the tree which is a visual reminder of the greatest gift we've received; Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. In the evenings during Advent, we read from a large Advent Ornament Storybook. The book is filled with 24 small ornament board books that tell the story of Christmas from the gospel of Luke. After reading each book, it is hung on the Christmas tree and the kids take turns grabbing a handful of hay and putting it in the manger. As Christmas draws near, the small books fill up the tree and the hay continues to fill the manger. On Christmas Eve, the final book is read and while the kids are sleeping, we take a small baby doll wrapped in swaddling clothes and place it in the manger. The first year we did it, Anaya’s eyes lit up at seeing precious baby Jesus in the manger. There is still excitement and anticipation as mom and dad teach and remind, that the greatest gift we receive at Christmas is Jesus To prevent the onslaught of gifts at Christmas, but not come across as Scrooge to our kids, we limit the presents on Christmas morning to three. They no doubt will receive other gifts from grandparents, aunts and uncles, but we open these at different times during the holidays, some before Christmas, some after Christmas. But on Christmas morning, as baby Jesus arrives in the manger, around the manger, for each of our children are three gifts. The reason we chose three is because Jesus was given three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. We personally choose to get our kids three specific things: A toy, a book (about Jesus), and an article of clothing. Our kids love Christmas and we pray that as we celebrate and rejoice in the gift of God’s Son, that our kids would come to love Jesus, who is no longer a baby, but is all grown up. He now rules and reigns in mom and dad’s hearts, our Prince of Peace, our King of Kings. We pray that as we long more and more for Christ to come again and make all things new, that our children’s hearts would be captivated by the joy of knowing Jesus Christ.

From the vonderLuft Family..

Our traditions around the Holiday season have focused on making things lovely, and reflective of our Christian faith, using this opportunity to focus on Christ and His incarnation. We don’t shy away from traditional ornamentation, though we have never included Santa Claus in our celebrations, we do seek to be festive but in a rather relaxed way. Some of the things we do have been mix and match with each year looking a bit different. Here are some ideas that we have incorporated: Every year now, we use a Jesse Tree advent plan. We have bright, colorful laminated pictures depicting scenes throughout Bible history that are hung with colorful paper clips on a narrow ribbon traversing our dining area. We read Bible passages day by day that correlate and use our own commentary. We have collected books for children that only come out at the Christmas season and focus on the advent story. We have used the Playmobile nativity scene so that our younger children could play with it. We have tried to keep decorations colorful but not expensive. These have included: Homemade paper chains; snowflakes made from round white coffee filters that have been dipped in food color dyes, dried, folded, cut, ironed, and taped to windows; greens collected from outside and used here and there, stringed popcorn, and gingerbread cookie cutouts for adding to a Christmas tree. Giving gifts: we choose names in the fall, so that each person is getting a gift for one other rather than for 13(!) Some of our seasonal activities over the years have involved caroling in nursing homes, learning and playing traditional Christmas hymns and songs, watching certain films such as a claymation rendition of the nativity story, The Fourth Wiseman, It’s a Wonderful Life, etc.; large puzzle building. We do have special meals with as much family as we can muster. This has included a treasure hunt with clues to find the ingredients for our Christmas morning brunch. And, since we have French roots in our ancestral lines we traditionally have a homemade Buche De Noel cake for dessert at some point. We also have a significant German heritage and like to include advent calendars w/scripture, and an advent wreath. Orange peels, cinnamon sticks, and cloves placed in simmering water on the stove help humidify the air. Though, as mentioned above we do not include Santa Claus in our celebration we have taken the opportunity to recount the story of Saint Nicholas and we do use homemade wool felt stockings for gifts (though not every year). Overall, we have used our liberty in Christ to focus on having a festive and memorable time for everyone (though especially the young), while minimizing expenditures. It is also a great time of year to remember the lonely and visit… May you find ways to honor our Lord and make this season joyous! The vonderLufts A few resources for materials: Dover Books, Vermont Christmas Company Guiding Light Video