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I have for years been looking to start our OWN personal family traditions with OUR kids. We have the regular meals with extended family, etc... but i really desire to have something more to really show my kids it is ALL about Jesus, not just some. WE do not do santa, i know some do and i think thats great. So i just finished up the Esther study with Beth moore, and we read about Purim. We learned that after God delivered the Jews from anihilation, that Mordecai instituted Purim (pretty much), and they feasted and celebrated the turn of events by eating, giving gifts to each other and to the poor. Anyway, so I am super excited to throw a birthday party for Jesus, to celebrate annually the turn around we recieve from death through the birth of our Saviour ( iknow thats the point anyway, but now i have a whole new approach to give my children, if that makes any sense)!!! BUT i am not at all creative, so i respect you ladies here and was wandering what you do or if you had any ideas?? Thank you so much=)

So wonderful, a birthday party for Jesus. I am with you..I lack creativity too! But, here is what we do:

We start our season with a Jesse Tree (similar to an Advent calendar) that takes us through Scripture from Genesis to the birth of Christ from December 1-25. Other than family and business celebrations, we are pretty low key at home. We spend our Christmas day with just our immediate family. We start our day when everyone gets up (no alarm clocks here - I have a 2 yo ) Then, we gather around the breakfast table, read the Christmas story, pray and eat our breakfast. We bake a cake, sing Happy Birthday to Jesus (some have told me this is irreverent), sing some hymns and Christmas carols and have a time of praise and worship, reflecting on who He is and what He has done. We watch The Nativity Story (the most accurate we have found so far - always looking - if anyone has any other suggestions). Then, we give each child three gifts (a book @ Christ or something spiritually focused, a toy or some longed for item, clothing - all depending on our financial situation - some times used) as we talk about what gifts Christ received at His birth and what each one signified. The really amazing thing is that our kids like getting presents, but they like giving MORE. So...we find a way to give presents to Jesus by giving to someone else. Things we have done in the past: purchasing a goat or other live stock for a child/family in another country, sponsoring a well for a community in another country, boxes for the needy in our area, taking cookies to the neighbors and singing Christmas carols to them, packing shoe boxes for a ministry, sending gifts to missionaries we pray for and/or sponser. Recently, a missionary visited our church and he said, "Christmas is not for Chrisitians, it is for those who do not yet believe. It gives us the opportunity to show the Savior's love to those who have not yet met Him." He was full of ideas about how to celebrate our Savior's birth (singing at a nursing home and bringing gifts with you - although the people enjoy the kids more than the gifts ; putting on your own live nativity for the neighborhood-our family isn't big enough for that seems like it would be fun though). We love Jesus, and are so thankful for His birth all year! Christmas is just the day we get to do extra special things.

We don't do a whole lot with this, but my husband really liked the idea of doing a birthday cake for Jesus so that has become our tradition on Christmas Eve (because our Christmas Day is a little busy). The girls help me bake and frost the cake. We have number candles to put the year on top. We get a picture of all of them around the cake. We started the year our first was born so it's fun to go back and see all the pictures.

We have our "fancy" dinner for our Christmas on Christmas Eve since it just works out better for me to be in the kitchen on that day and not when I'm wanting to watch them open presents. We do a nice tablecloth with China and Crystal and the cake is our dessert. We sing Happy Birthday to Jesus then. We dress up and attend the Christmas Eve service that night. The girls give their gifts to us and each other on Christmas Eve so they can get to focus on the fun of giving. I do give them the option of putting on a Santa hat to give out their gifts so they can "play Santa" if they want to clarify a little that Santa is a game people play versus Jesus being the real person whose birthday we're celebrating. We've really enjoyed focusing more on Jesus on Christmas Eve to keep the holiday in perspective. Christmas day can get crazy with opening presents and visiting family so I like having our traditions start with paying attention to the purpose of the holiday.

BTW - I keep making Christmas Day easier on my self each year so I can enjoy it. We get some fabulous cinnamon rolls from our local Bakery the day before to have for breakfast Christmas morning. I'm also putting more breakfasty type food in their stockings this year as they get them whenever they wake up. They have to stay in their rooms and play with those toys until Mom and Dad get up. Anyway, last year they never wanted to get away from the presents long enough to eat breakfast and they were starving so I figured giving them breakfast in their stockings would work better. We're going to do frozen pizza on Christmas paper plates this year for lunch so I don't have to be in the kitchen at all and miss anything.