Christmas Traditions: Decorations

Christmas decorations are fun and pretty. They make things festive and set a party mood. They help to convey that this is a special time, different than every other day. It adds to the excitement and anticipation of Christmas. They can also be used as a way to teach and remind children about aspects of the birth story which is the main tradition I want to focus on. In our house, we do this several ways using repetition and specific purposes in our yearly decor ...

1. A Nativity Scene. I bought a huge nativity Set from Costco 7 years ago. I love it. When it's set up, we read the birth narrative out of Matthew or Luke and then in the weeks before Christmas, I'll ask the kids who or what the pieces are. I love hearing them re-tell the birth story.  (Unfortunately my nativity table broke in the move and i haven't replaced it so I haven't put the nativity up yet)

2. Christmas tree/ornaments. I love Christmas tress. They are SO pretty! I like to have a nicely (read=I do it!) decorated tree for the family. In 1999 I chose to do my tree in burgundy and gold and have kept those colors ever since. I like how gold relates to Jesus' majesty and burgundy/reddish speaks to His blood sacrifice. About 5 years ago, I decided to only use star ornaments to represent the star that lead the wise men to baby Jesus and to remind us to go to Him also. (I didn’t have enough stars to fill the tree then so I used ball ornaments to fill in and bought some stars every year since. This year stars are finally the only ornaments on my tree!) We have used a fake tree for a few years since it doesn’t shed needles, I’m bad at watering things, and it’s easier for me to set up whenever I want to! This year the boys wanted to help build the tree so as we were building it, we talked about decorating it with stars and lights and gold and burgundy and what those represent to us.
Each year I see new colors and cool ornaments and want to switch it up but I have decided that keeping the theme we’ve had for years is a great way to instill and reinforce the simple truths that Jesus is King and sacrificed himself for us and just as a star pointed the way to Him for some wise men seeking him long ago, we are reminded to seek him every time we look at the tree.
But my kids’ make ornaments and want bright colors and festive things that don’t fit into my star tree. So, on their 3rd Christmas (any younger and they don't care and/or they will tear it apart!), my kids get their own little tree to decorate. I buy them a set of mini Nativity ornaments from Michael's and a star for the top and then let them choose a few things for their tree every year. The boys look forward to their room trees and it makes things fun and festive in their rooms. Plus, they don't touch the big tree since they have their own to play with! Haha!

3. Lights. I love a lit up house! I wish I could have Clark Griswold’s lighting skills. When we light our tree, put up our outdoor lights and when we look at others’ Christmas lights we talk about how Jesus is the light of the world. And as his followers, he calls us to be lights in this world too. Christmas lights are a reminder of that for us.

Those are my Christmas decoration "traditions". They are the same every year. (Well, I'll always add new stars to the tree but the theme is the same) Not every decoration in our house is specifically “spiritual” though. I also have stockings, wreaths, garlands, centerpieces, pinecones, a Snowman bathroom, holiday plates, etc. But those things change and are not really a specific yearly tradition since they aren't tied to any specific Christmas truth although I try to match the other themes. So, in our house decorations add to the festive feel and importance of Christmas. They are all a blessing to my family and our kids are excited about our decorations and what they mean. Yesterday Knox and Caleb brought in some neighbor kids to see how pretty our tree was. Now hopefully they will have an opportunity to tell them about who those stars are pointing to! ;)

This year's star tree:

All lit-up:

"After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."....When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh." ~Matthew 2:1-2;10-11