The Things I Love Most

Tips To Enjoying Life With Your Family

25 Days of Christmas 2012

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You all know how much I love the Christmas Season!  For the past two years since I have been blogging I have shared with you my favorite things I do with my family to make sure that we have a wonderful, memorable and Christ Centered Christmas.  I thought I would put it all together in one post.  Life is busy right now and I can’t commit to blogging daily about everything we do, so I thought I would make it easy for you to find so I put it all in one post.  
25 Days of Christmas Fun…
A few years ago I got a fun idea from my aunt to do something fun every day leading up to Christmas.  That is when I started this tradition.  I usually do the same things every year {adding a few new things each year} but I switch days according to our families schedule.  I print this out and put it up on our door {where we hang all of our Christmas cards we get!} and after school is over we do our activity.  Most are short, some are to be done with the whole family
25 Days of The Christmas Spirit…
I decided I wanted not only to do fun activities leading up to Christmas, I also wanted to do some teaching and learning to really help my kids understand the true spirit of Christmas! Two years ago I added 25 Days of the Spirit of Christmas. We will do this part of it during school. I changed this up just a little bit from last year, but am mostly using stuff from Discover Christmas through Discover the Scriptures for only $7.99. It has 25 days of great stuff to help bring the spirit of Christmas into your home. It also has stories, memory verses, recipes, crafts, hands-on projects, service ideas and hand-made gifts.

Last year we started this tradition of doing 25 days of Random Acts of Kindness.  It ended up being SO amazing!  The kids really learned a lot about themselves and others.  Here is a list of ideas of services that can be done.  Some days when we weren’t able to get out of the house and go do something for others, we did services for each other!

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25 Christmas Books…I have collected Christmas books over the years and was able to start this tradition with my kids. I got most of these books at garage sales and the DI, but some I bought because they are really special, and I wanted to have them to share with my children. One of my favorite is The Giving Chest by Dick Van Dyke. It is a sweet story that my kids love to hear each year. We also love the simplified story in the My First Story of the First Christmas. We have lots of fun ones and also some more spiritual ones! I like to mix them up and trade off nights! I wrap these books and put them in a basket by the tree and let the kids trade off picking out a book to read each night! 

25 Days of Christ Countdown Ornaments (New this year 2012)…
I am excited to start this new tradition of an ornament a night to countdown to Christmas.  I got the set from 25 Days of Christ.

Update – They just started talking orders for 2013!  So go here to get your orders in now!!


Here is what I am using for Day 1 of the 25 Days of Christmas Spirit.   I wanted to find Scriptures from the Bible and also the Book of Mormon.  (If you would like a Book of Mormon I can send you one, just email me your address)  You can also find more about it here.  If you click on each page and make the picture big or right click and save you can print it and make a paper chain! Here is a Google Docs Link for the 25 Scriptures. There are 24 scriptures and then one that is the last one for Christmas day {but it’s on the first page}.  

 
Gift Giving and Gift Exchange…My kids will each receive 3 gifts on Christmas morning {Plus what is in their stocking}. Three to remember the 3 gifts given to Christ by the Wise men. One that Santa will bring, one picked out by Dad, and one from Mom. I don’t want to spoil my children, but I also want them to have something nice. Since we really don’t buy our kids anything extra except for presents on their birthdays I think that 3 gifts is just perfect. We are also going to pick a family member for them to get a gift for and then on Christmas Eve we will do a small gift exchange between the 6 of us.

This might seem like a lot to you, but my kids remember it every year.  Yes it takes a little preparation on my part, but it ends up being so fun and very rewarding.  We do the 25 Days of the Spirit of Christmas and Scripture chain in the morning,  Our service anytime through out the day.  Our Fun activity after school.  We will read a book at night and instead of scripture study at night we will do the 25 days of Christ ornament countdown (it comes with a scripture and a story or video link. Feel free to print and use any of these ideas.  I hope you all have a wonderful December and fill it with The Spirit of Christ and the true meaning of Christmas!

Comments

  5. I am interested in the 25 Days of Christmas Spirit? The one where you learn about christmas things. How can I get a copy of that, with the meanings?

  6. Ashley, It says in the post I got most of it from Discover the Scriptures. It’s only 7.99 and really worth the price. I also google some stuff! Hope that helps!