What is your favorite Christmas tradition? Going to cut down a Christmas tree? Baking cookies? Lighting an Advent wreath? Perhaps you have fond memories of a tradition your family had while you were growing up. Maybe you have committed to continue that same tradition with your own children or grandchildren. Or maybe you have young children and are trying to decide what your family’s Christmas traditions should be.
Traditions can be an important part of family life, especially at Christmastime. Traditions bring families together and provide ways for parents and children to interact with each other and their community. By doing activities together like baking cookies or decorating a Christmas tree, caregivers and children strengthen emotional bonds and create lasting memories. Watching the town Christmas parade connects children to their wider community. Attending a Christmas Eve service connects your family to others who are celebrating the birth of the Christ Child. Traditions can bring us the comfort of stability in a world that sometimes feels overwhelming.
One of the goals of Karis Parenting is to support families of young children as they seek to find ways to make God part of their everyday lives. One way parents and caregivers can do this is to be intentional about including Christmas traditions that focus on Jesus. That doesn’t mean you have to give up going to see Santa or watching Rudolf on television. It just means finding ways to teach or remind children why we celebrate Advent and Christmas. Some families choose to light candles on a home Advent wreath. Others choose to mark the days leading up to Christmas with a Jesse tree or a Christian-themed Advent calendar. One tradition I still practice with my own children (who are now in their 20s) is to gather in my room on Christmas Eve after we have attended the Christmas Eve service at church. My “big kids” change into their new pajamas and pile on my bed, and then we read “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” and the story of Christ’s birth in Luke 2.
It is important to remember that Christmas traditions with your children shouldn’t add to the stress of an already exhausting holiday season. You don’t have to do everything. Let me repeat, you don’t have to do everything! Give yourself some grace and decide on the traditions that mean the most to your family. There are so many fun and meaningful possibilities. And as you create your own family’s routines and traditions, consider adding or emphasizing practices that help you remember that the baby Jesus in our nativity scenes is the Word made flesh, Immanuel, God with us.