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Happy Birthday Jesus Photo Greeting Card |
With all of that going on it can be very hard to remember that it's not about us.
How do you keep the focus on our Lord and Savior this time of year? Please leave comments on this post and tell me how you do it at your house. Do you read the Christmas story from Luke? Attend a candlelight Christmas Eve service? Go caroling? Volunteer at a homeless shelter? Make a Birthday cake for Jesus and sing Happy Birthday? Have a special nativity scene you set out? Do you light an advent wreath? What do you do?
Leave a comment and let us all know.
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CYBER MONDAY ETSY Sale - 10% Off - Happy Birthday Jesus Christmas Ornament |
O Come Let Us Adore Him
Christ the Lord
by Sue of SueRunyonDesigns
Comments (15)
I do light an advent wreath every year in my house. We celebrate Christ’s birth with great anticipation each year starting with the 1st of Advent, special music,
special treats, special bags of Food for needy families within our community, special afternoon walks to hand out cookies, caroling on a hay wagon thru the neighbor
hood. Inviting folks to a special meal we cook. Working downtown at the soup kitchen to feed the man, many who do not have what I do.
Then our Christmas Cantata about the birth of Jesus is sung in December, a Moravian Love Feast Christmas Eve, and a church service
Christmas Morning. Getting together in the afternoon with friends that are also single and don’t have family here at my house for a scrumptious meal, everyone brings something,
nothing planned, Games, fun and laughter in the afternoon......and yes it is my birthday too!
Did you all know that Jesus was really born sometime in Spring?!?
Happy Birthday Jesus, my love...♥
The day after Thanksgiving, the Christmas CDs come out. I love Christmas music. This year, i have been making most of my gifts & even though i've gotten a little stressed at times, the work constantly reminded me of God's love. He gave us His son because He loves us. And i am giving a little bit of my heart with each gift i make this year. This year, i am so looking forward to Christmas Eve with friends. We are having dinner, exchanging gifts & attending the candlelight service at church at 11:00. It's been a few years since i've been to a candlelight service & i am so excited. What a wonderful fellowship to wish Jesus Happy Birthday! <><
We always read the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2. When my children were younger, we talked about the different things that we use to decorate with and their meanings. One of those is the Christmas tree. I believe that God gave us the evergreen tree here on earth as a symbol of everlasting life.(For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Romans 1:20) And the reason that Jesus came to earth was to give to us eternal life.
We usually go to church Christmas Eve and then have a special dinner after. I try to have new pajamas for everyone to sleep in. My two daughters who are 20 and 24 have always slept together Christmas eve. Since the "Nativity" movie came out, we watch that on Christmas eve. We sing Happy Birthday to Jesus in front of our nativity set Christmas morning. I put the breakfast casserole I made the day before in the oven to bake while we open presents. After breakfast we call family and friends we won't be seeing, to wish them Merry Christmas. Later in the day we get together with extended family for dinner at one of our houses.
We talk about the symbolism of many different aspects of Christmas traditions and decorations. My family is spread out so we don't get to see many of them :0(
We are going to a candle light service on Christmas Eve and singing carols. On Christmas morning, we get up super early, before the sun is up so we can pretend there's snow, and go through the stockings. Then wake up Mom and Dad, yes I'm almost 30 and still do this. After everyone has had their tea/coffee or while still having it, we read the story of Jesus birth in Luke and then we open presents. This year my husband and I will be helping our church do a dinner for the community the day after Christmas as well, I am looking forward to that. ^_^
My daughter is only 3, so we've only just begun establishing our family traditions - not an easy task when my husband is not yet a Christian. I do remind my daughter regularly that Christmas is Jesus's birthday, but we get presents because we can't give them to Jesus. We will bake and decorate some cookies during the day on Christmas Eve for Santa. Then my mother-in-law will go to church with my daughter and me. Our church has a family service early on Christmas Eve (5:00PM) that is organized by our children's pastor (a sweet, young man who adores our children!) that consists of a lot of singing by the elementary kids and pre-schoolers, and a kid-friendly Christmas message. After church we'll go out to dinner. Last year we went to Mexican. This year, I think we're going to Chinese. =)
Lights - lights - lights. Jesus is the light of the world. I put up lots of tiny white lights and I love to drive around at night to see others' Christmas lights. Our newspaper lists where the good ones are.
I love to go to a presentation of Handel's Messiah to hear Jesus' whole story sung. My church does have a candlelight Christmas Eve service. In a neighborhood near me every homeowner lines their driveways with luminaries on Christmas Eve. I drive through there every year.
Even our gift giving is, in a small measure, following the example of Father God who gave us His most precious Gift.
We attend candlelight service on Christmas eve, but We start celebrating right after Thanksgiving. I agree, lots of lights, our tree up with large nativity under it. I have a nativity for every room. Also our Christmas music comes out. I still love the old ones such as Silent Night, O Come All Ye Faithful, etc. Our church has a caroling night where we go to the local nursing home and around neighborhoods. We will read the Christmas story and sing happy birthday Jesus. Christmas day is a large family dinner, more carols, etc.
We attend the Christmas Eve candlelight service with the reinaction of the Christmas story. The story is read from Luke as they act it out. This year we are also serving at the food kitchen on Christmas Day. We just do a small gift exchange among family members.
We love attending candlelight Christmas eve services and driving around the neighborhood afterward to enjoy the lights.
For Christmas instead of a big dinner we always do a big brunch and invite people and they often hang around until afternoon. Brunch seems to be a good time of day to invite people over on Christmas as it doesn't seem to interfere with other plans too much. We have a birthday cake for Jesus with our brunch. We've tried different types of cake and have settled on a simple yellow bundt cake (wreath shaped) with mini chocolate chips and powdered sugar over the top with some candles. Everyone stops and sings Happy Birthday and my son and/or other kids blow out the candles.
We don't get around to open gifts until afternoon and we just take our time with that. My son stops and plays with items he receives and opening gifts has been know to last for days at our house. Now that he is older, we have him read the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2. In the evening we either snack on leftover quiche and fruit and cake from brunch or have tamales.
A few years, leading up to Christmas, throughout December, we've read a chapter a day from a Jesse Tree book. A Jesse Tree stems from the middle ages when pictures or sculptures in churches and cathedrals reminded people of Bible stories. Jesse tree pictures or ornaments have simple pictures representing stories of the people in the lineage of Christ and the related Bible passages tell of God's long standing plan of a Messiah fulfilled in Christ. It's a very good way to explain the plan of salvation and the significance of Jesus' birth.
I apologize I was wrong, about my statement of Jesus's birth....You can read it all here.
http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/was-jesus-born-on-december-25-faq.htm
Monika
About 14 Christmases ago when my 3 oldest were very small -- 5, 3 and 22 months -- I was living with my mom. I didn't have much money and had in fact just been approved for cash assistance. My mom's tree topper had finally stopped working so I went the dollar store a bought an angel holding candles. We all decorated the tree and when it was all finished, those 3 little children stood there in front of the tree and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. I almost cried.
Every year we always refer to Christmas as Jesus' birthday and that's why we give gifts to each other. I always put out a stocking with candy and little gifts but never said it was from Santa. If they wanted to believe it, I didn't say anything but when they asked I told them the truth. I always wanted Jesus' birth to be the focus of Christmas.
We are doing things a little different this year since we are involved with 2 churches. We are attending Christmas Eve service at one church (they are not having a Christmas service) and DS is actually going to get trained in working sound and for Christmas our gift is to relieve those that don't want to work Video Ministry for Christmas and our whole family will be manning cameras for the live internet feed at another church. It will be a full but meaningful time serving the Lord.
A good reminder, Sue! I like to play CDs of the traditional Christmas hymns for my children to listen to and our church always has a nativity-themed concert put on by the Sunday school students as well as a Christmas eve carols service and Christmas day church service.
My husband and I also like to remind our kids about why Christ's birth is so special and that while all the other trappings of Christmas (the presents, tree, decorations, etc) are fun, the real part to focus on is Jesus. :)