Ahh Holidays with kids – I have the sweetest memories of the Holidays as a little girl growing up on the island. The Christmas season is the slow season where I grew up (a little island in Lake Erie), so the holidays were filled with baking, tree decorating, snow ball fights, ice skating, sledding, cross country skiing, and visiting everyone on the island that didn’t have family with a big ole plate of fresh baked cookies. My heart gets warm and fuzzy just thinking about it!
1. Intentionality during the Holidays with Kids
As I started into the holidays with my babies, I was in a very different place than where those warm fuzzy memories were created. I was a single mom, living in south Florida. Knowing I was missing some of the components that made my childhood holidays so very special (snow and family all in one house), I knew I had to be very intentional about making these times feel like that magical childhood I experienced. Being on the “mainland” (yes, that’s what we call it back home), there were a million opportunities, festivals, parties and more that were available – what a gift! As the kids grew out of the baby stage, I began packing our schedules with all kinds of things, and it was FUN! But one year, I realized, we were DOING more than we were EXPERIENCING. We were so busy doing the things that we weren’t soaking in the special, the SACRED of the season. So I set my mind that we would become more intentional about our Holidays. Don’t be afraid to say no to some events, so you can say yes to soaking up the magic, the sacred of this season with your babies.
2. Holiday Traditions
I am BIG on traditions (just ask Robbie, it drove him nuts when we first got married and now he admits he looks forward to at least some of them!). Traditions instill a sense of belonging, of specialness, of unique family ties and community for kids, not to mention a sense of anticipation, joy, and excitement!
I challenge you to create at least ONE family tradition. Write it down and stuff it where you store your ornaments, or put it in your planner for next year so you don’t forget!
3. Holidays with Kids: Keeping Track
Okay, you’ve created a tradition or maybe even a handful, now how on earth do you keep track of them? I found this to be a struggle at least one year where we skated to the end of the season and had forgotten all about doing something that we all really enjoyed. How do you keep track of something that only comes once every 12 months (when you’re sleep deprived, or working, or or or)? Add in the complexity of shared custody, so limited days/nights/weekends home together and I decided then and there that I needed a calendar. The first year, it was handwritten with all the things we hoped to accomplish, including what days we would read devotionals since they would miss a few nights. I’ve since switched to keeping it in Google Sheets on a calendar that I update with our custody arrangement and then layer in the traditions from last year’s calendar. This was a huge success because it also let Robbie know when I needed him to be home on time from work, and gave us a chance to discuss events he might step back so he could work. Once the holidays came around, all we had to do was check the schedule and get excited about what was coming up!
Cherish
As we created these special memories, I looked for a way to remember the little details of their personalities and cuteness from year to year. I wanted a solution that wasn’t just another thing to maintain, but also captured the special memories so we wouldn’t forget for years and years to come. What was that cute thing she used to say? Why did he choose a snowman ornament that year for ornament night. The reasons seem so important at the moment, but I found even the next year I sometimes struggled to remember all the details I wanted to (I was also under a lot of stress and had not learned how to be mindful/fully present in the midst of stress – something I’m still learning!). I created memory books for each of the kids using these simple black sketch books. I’ll try to do a blog post on how I put them together so it stays easy – let me know if you’d like to see it!
4. Focus on the Reason
I wanted dearly for my kids to know that Christmas had little to do with lights and presents, and truly was a Gift of such magnitude, our minds can’t quite comprehend it (at least mine can’t – ha!). I looked for a devotional that was biblically sound and interactive to truly engage the kids. Our first year we used the Truth in the Tinsel ebook and enjoyed it. I wasn’t fully prepared for the crafts and was working a lot at the time, so we ended up moving on from that to Ann Voskamp’s Unwrapping the Greatest Gift, which we’ve truly enjoyed! Last year I even got the kids a Jesse Tree for their room!
5. Give Back
I can’t stress this enough. We are all naturally selfish and sinful, and kids are no exception. It’s how we’re wired. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. Make giving back a regular part of the season. Make it fun! We used to make SO MANY cookies when we were kids, then my mom would meticulously make these gorgeous plates of goodies and wrap them tightly in saran wrap (I don’t think there even was generic back then!), and send them off with my dad, Rachel and I in the front seat of the truck. I can still smell that perfect sweet mixture of the snow crunching under the truck tires, the exhaust of the truck, and the sweet cookies in our laps, just by thinking about it! We ran those plates to every elderly person on the island, the people who didn’t have family, and those who were going through a hard time. I never knew this was a giving back strategy, in fact I’m not convinced it was. It was just what we did for our neighbors. We got lost for hours in houses that smelled a bit like moth balls with chubby shining faces grinning ear to ear about their delicious treats and telling us every detail of their winter and how much we’d grown. Find a way to give back – it will bless you and your kids more than you could guess. Here are some easy ideas:
- Use Emily Ley’s random acts of Kindness advent calendar – we do this every year and the kids look forward to it!
- Take cookies to a nursing home
- Bring a mug and cup of cocoa to a neighbor who has had a hard year or whom you don’t yet know.
- Donate a farm animal to those in need in lieu of part or all of your gift to someone. (We love and trust OxFam)
- Have the kids go through their toys and select the best they are willing to part with. Take them to a local charity to donate themselves(call ahead to confirm they will take the items).
- Buy flowers and give them to a stranger (pray about who to give them to) – I stole this one from Kate @ www.housemixblog.com
On that note & with Kate as a reminder – I wanted to be clear that 10% of my blog proceeds will be donated to charity.
Let me know what tips you plan on using this year!! Love you all!
