Christmas traditions

Day 4 of Keeping Christ in Christmas – Christmas Trees

Let’s continue relating the familiar objects of Christmas to the coming of our Savior!

 

In 16th-century Germany fir trees were decorated, both indoors and out, with apples, roses, gilded candies, and colored paper. In a popular religious play in the Middle Ages about Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden, a fir tree was decorated with apples and used to symbolize the Garden of Eden, the Paradise Tree. The play ended with the prophecy of a savior coming, and so was often performed during the Advent season.

It is held that Protestant reformer Martin Luther first adorned trees with light. One December evening, the beauty of the stars shining through the branches of a fir tree inspired him to recreate the effect by placing candles on the branches of a small fir tree inside his home.

The Christmas Tree was brought to England by Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert from his native Germany. The famous Illustrated News etching in 1848, featuring the Royal Family gathered around a Christmas tree in Windsor Castle, popularized the tree throughout Victorian England. The Christmas tree was brought to America by the Pennsylvania Germans and became popular by the late 19th century.

So how do we transform this to make it a reminder of the birth of Jesus Christ?

When putting up your tree, remember the Tree in the Garden of Eden and the sin that took place there. This brought about the need for a Savior to be born.

The fact that the fir tree is an evergreen can remind us of our Savior’s everlasting love for us.

When you look at your decorated tree, remember God did His best work on a tree when He gave His Son to die on a Cross for all of us! 

A very good children’s book related to how God used trees in Christ’s life is The Tale of Three Trees: A Traditional Folktale by Angela Elwell Hunt.

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Day 3 of Keeping Christ in Christmas – Christmas Lights

The history of Christmas lights dates back to 17th century Germany when candles were fastened to the tree branches by wax or pins. However, the candles melted quickly and were a fire hazard. In 1882, just three years after Thomas Edison’s light bulb invention, Edward Johnson, an associate of Mr. Edison, first lit up a Christmas tree by eighty electric bulbs. The red white and the blue bulbs of 6/8 of an inch in diameter were hand wired and wound round the trees like the beads of a string for a beautiful, sparkling effect.

Still out of range for most American families to purchase, Edison’s Christmas tree lights did not immediately catch on. It would take decades for affordable lighting to become available to most Americans. However, just after President Grover Cleveland commissioned a lighted White House tree in 1895, members of “high society” started hosting Christmas Tree parties. 

Smaller and less expensive battery-operated lighting strings were decorating the trees of those adventurous enough to do the wiring. In fact, an article in Popular Electricity Magazine had a piece for children, explaining how to light the family tree with battery-powered electric lights. The back pages had instructions on ordering the necessary wire, sockets and light bulbs.

In 1903, The General Electric Company offered pre-assembled lighting outfits called festoons. They consisted of eight green porcelain sockets; eight Edison miniature based colored glass lamps and a handy serve in plug. The cost of General Electric’s first offering of Christmas lights was $12.00 for a set of 24 lights, enough to light a medium sized table-top tree. This was considered extremely expensive in 1903, as the average wage for the time was a mere 22¢ per hour, which equaled a weekly paycheck of about $13.20. Since the cost of purchasing the lights was expensive, they could be rented for the whole Christmas season. Later several companies began offering lamp sets and in this way the Christmas lighting industry began.

So how do we transform this to make it a reminder of the birth of Jesus Christ?

Each day that you turn on the lights of Christmas, tell your children that Jesus came to be light in our darkness. Israel had a yearly celebration called Festival of Lights. It was a happy celebration time and the whole city was lit up.   On the last day of the celebration,  it was sad to see the lights go out.  One year, at the moment the lights were put out, Jesus stepped from the shadows and pronounced,  “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. (John 8:12) 

Then consider that the purpose of a follower of Jesus is to also be light in the world.  “That you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.” (Philippians 2:15 )

Pray this verse each night when you turn on your Christmas lights:
Lord, you have brought light to my life; my God, you light up my darkness. Psalm 18:28 

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Day 2 of Keeping Christ in Christmas – Christmas Stocking

Remember – we are trying to use the tangible, traditional symbols of Christmas to teach our children the intangible, true meaning of the season.  As you hang your stockings, relate this story.  You can read about this in the book by Harold Myra called Santa, Are You For Real? Click on the name to see this available at Amazon.com.

 

The tradition of hanging Christmas stockings began with a story in ancient days about a kind man who had three daughters. In those days a dowry or money had to be given before a girl could marry.  When these girls fell in love and wanted to marry, the poor father could not afford their dowries.

A teenage boy named Nicholas, whose parents had died when he was nine, heard about the plight of the daughters.  Because Nicholas loved Jesus so much, he wanted to give as Jesus did; one night Nick secretly put a bag of gold in each of the daughters’ stockings that were hung out to dry. The next morning the family found the gold bags and the daughters were married and lived happily ever after. Since then, children have been hanging Christmas stockings. (Nicholas was later made a saint by the church  because of his continued giving.)

So how do we transform this to make it a reminder of the birth of Jesus Christ?

The origin of the Christmas stocking shows us how these young girls went from being poor and destitute to being rich.  When you look at the Christmas stockings, think about

2 Corinthians 8:9 – For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

Jesus left the riches of heaven in order to give His life on the Cross for us, so we can have the gift of abundant life. This is the greatest message of Christmas!
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Use Traditional Objects to Teach that Jesus is the Reason for the Season

The excitement of Christmas has already begun at our house. Our California children are flying in next week for the month, the tree is decorated, the Christmas lists are made out, and soon the baking, shopping, and parties will be in full swing.  It is so easy in all this activity to let the real meaning of Christmas go unmentioned.  We adults know that Christmas is Jesus’ birthday but how are our children going to know unless we tell them.  They may see this only as a time when all the relatives get together or there’s lots of goodies to eat or everyone gives them gifts.

Enjoy the traditional practices of Christmas.  Don’t be so different from the world that the world wouldn’t want what you have. An old English historical writing contains a letter from Pope Gregory to Saint Mellitus, who was on his way to England to do missionary work among the pagan Anglo-Saxons. Pope Gregory suggested that converting heathens would go easier if they were allowed to keep some of their traditional practices, while reinterpreting those traditions spiritually towards the Christian God instead of to their pagan ‘devils’.

Today we as Christians should hear what Pope Gregory said and enjoy the traditions of the world, but be sure to give them Spiritual meaning for our families. Make every effort to teach the real meaning of Christmas through everything you do:

  • While decorating the tree share that the evergreen tree reminds us of the everlasting love Jesus has for us.  The tree is like a big birthday cake for Jesus and the lights are the candles.  The lights remind us that Jesus is the Light of the world and that “God lights our darkness” (2 Samuel 22:29)
  • While wrapping gifts share “It is better to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35) Point out that because it is Jesus’ birthday we give gifts.  Jesus said when we give to one another it is the same as giving to him. (And the King will tell them, ‘I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ Matthew 25:40) Share “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).   Make sure your children are involved in making or purchasing gifts to give so they are not just on the receiving end of the gifts.  Also point out that giving is not only things, but he can give love, friendship, help, and joy.
  • Make the manger scene central in your decorations. Be sure your children hear the Christmas story from the Bible often. It’s fine to tell them the pretend stories of Santa and elves, Rudolph and Frosty, but be sure to tell the true story of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, angels, Shepherds, etc.  Also help them understand the true story of Santa.  He loved Jesus so much that he wanted to give to others.  A good book about Santa is “Santa, Are You for Real? “ by Harold Myra.

Check Train Up The Child for ways to relate the real Reason for the Season to traditional seasonal objects.  Just search on the site for ‘Christmas’, ‘Keeping Christ in Christmas’,  or for a traditional object (ex. Santa, trees, wreaths, mistletoe, etc.)

 

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Annual Daws Family Birthday Party for Jesus

Tonight all 10 members of the Daws family are home together for the first time in a year and we just had our annual birthday party for Jesus. We sang happy birthday and blew out candles on cupcakes.  We unwrapped the present for Jesus which is a box with the last 20 years of thank you’s we have given Him.  We read 2010 thank you’s and then drew pictures of things we are thankful for that happened this year.  We guessed what each one is thankful for from the pictures each drew.  Then we sang Christmas carols by candlelight.

I hope Jesus enjoyed His party as much as we did.

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