This Holiday Season, Put Christ Back in Christmas

For many families, the Christmas season has become an overscheduled series of parties, decorating, visits by relatives, shopping, and rushing from one festivity to another. This Christmas, the Diocese of Orlando asks that you let go of most of the holiday stress by focusing on the true reason for Christmas: the birth of Jesus Christ. While many students in private schools in Orlando enjoy the pleasure of learning about Advent and the timeline leading up to Jesus’s birth, once they return home, the rush of everyday life takes control. Below is a short list of ideas your family can use to celebrate the true joy of the season.

• Attend Mass to see the Advent candles lit: Talk to your children about the four candles and the meaning of their colors. Many stores carry the pink and purple candles and you can create your own Advent wreath for your table, carefully lighting the appropriate candle before meals, and following the pattern you see during Mass. If you do not wish to create an Advent wreath, many florists and specialty shops carry beautiful Advent wreaths.
• Adopt a family: Department stores often display a “Giving Tree” as you walk through the door. Have each family member choose a name from the tree. While some tags are simple (a toy car), others are quite involved and list many items. Your family has the option of choosing one child and providing all the toys on the list, or individually wrapping multiple gifts to be delivered to the department store. Your church may also have a Giving Tree or they may be sponsoring families in need.
• Volunteer: Holidays are a fantastic way to demonstrate the gift of giving. Show your children that you can give more than money during the holidays: you can give the gifts of time, talent, and friendship as you visit nursing homes, walk dogs at the local animal shelter, or bag groceries at a food pantry. All these organizations beg for volunteers of any age and welcome families as they give their time and talents together.
• Shift the focus of gifts to more homemade gifts: Give cookies, homemade candy, or small loaves of bread to teachers, mail carriers, garbage collectors, neighbors, and others. If you are fortunate enough to have fruit trees, give oranges, lemons, grapefruit, or any other bounty you have.
• Read: Christmas books abound for children of all ages. Start a tradition of sharing a story together every evening for the Twelve Days of Christmas. And remember, these stories are available in public libraries as well as bookstores.
• Decorate the tree together: Unpack the ornaments and explain their importance as you hang each one on the tree. Don’t worry if your small children clump several ornaments on one branch; Christmas is a time for family, not for the perfect tree. When you finish, find a place for the nativity scene and explain the role of the shepherds, kings, and why Baby Jesus is not in the manger until Christmas morning.

Your children will truly appreciate the emphasis you place on family time during the Christmas holidays. Keep as much worry and stress out of the holidays as possible by focusing on your family and Jesus’s family. Call the Diocese of Orlando at 407-246-4903 to learn about how students in our private schools in Orlando will be celebrating Christmas.