No, we did not spend Christmas in Florida, because that would be crazy. Crazy meaning that the number of people vacationing in Orlando would be four times as many as were there when we went. We had won 2 free nights in a hotel there and had to use them before Dec. 31, 2009, so it seemed logical, albeit out of character for our "off the beaten path" family to go to Disney World on the week before Christmas.
Now, having "done" Disney World, I have to admit that Orlando
is a great vacation spot. Pricey, though we got really lucky. We ended up getting free passes to Disney World through a friend of a friend (thank you Mr. Eric!). And then we did one of those deals where you agree to listen to a protracted sales pitch in exchange for a gift, and in our case the gift was heavily discounted tickets to both "Gatorland" and "Sea World".
Both of our girls loved the big tortoise at Gatorland -- we got to touch it and walk next to it, and Adara even got to feed it a carrot!
And at Sea World we sat center stage on the 2nd row. We got wet, but the tears only lasted a minute, and wet clothes were exchanged for dry ones pretty quickly. What a memorable experience, seeing those whales only 20 feet from us, and looking into their eyes! Adara went nuts when she saw the trainers swimming with the whales and performing their stunts reminiscent of water skiing. She was ready to jump in with them. (Keep in mind she doesn't swim, and freaks out if her head goes under water at the swimming pool.)
So now it's Christmas. I've been thinking that this is supposed to be a religious holiday, but the most we were able to get into that aspect of Christmas with our girls is that today is Jesus' birthday, and that Jesus was the gift that God gave to the world.
Besides singing Christmas carols and hymns, and watching the "Nativity" clip from the Church, the only thing we've done "in the spirit of Christ" is to take plates of cookies to our neighbors.
It was actually an accident that it turned into a spiritual experience. After we delivered the third plate, Adara didn't want to stop. She must have felt something that made her excited and feel like giving away her treasured treats instead of keeping them all for herself. I obviously couldn't recreate that feeling with the hymns and stories/videos about Christmas.
So here's my question: how do you get that feeling into your Christmas celebration on purpose? What do you do at Christmastime that makes you excited and filled with desire to share your treasured treats with strangers?
9 comments:
We watch The Forgotten Carols movie and "only" listen to the soundtrack all December long. Now that we have the story book, that will be part of the tradition - Reading one story a night starting on 12/1. It works for us, helps us to focus on what Christmas is all about, and helps me from not getting mad at the crap Christmas songs on the radio (can't get mad at what you cannot hear). The X-men watched the movie and were really into it, so that may work. Good luck!
- Lela
Thanks, Le. For sure Adara will be old enough next year for stuff like that, and maybe Naomi, too.
You probably won't like my answer, but I'd say that you remember that Christmas originated in 2 pagan holidays, share the spirit of giving and fun, and save the serious and spiritual stuff for springtime, when Christ was both born and resurrected.
If you try to teach the girls to feel guilty about having fun, they may end up hating Christmas. There's nothing wrong with admiring God's gift of whales to us and appreciating that on Christmas, for example.
And, with apologies to Lela, I'd go nuts if all I listened to in Dec. was "The Forgotten Carols." Still, that doesn't mean you have to listen to whatever's on the radio; make your own playlist, for crying out loud. (Amazon had 99 classical Christmas songs for $5.00 for a download. Great stuff, the Oxford boys'choir, the Nutcracker Suite, etc.)
God's gift of whales . . . now there's a concrete idea that a toddler can wrap her mind around!
It's all good. I know most people'd go crazy listening to the same CD over and over, but it's the ONLY Christmas music that doesn't bug me (I've listened to a lot of it, too). :)
Lela, you would've had fun over at feministmormonhousewives where they had a whole post dedicated to Christmas songs people hate. The winner was "Baby, It's Cold Outside," but "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" and that horrible song about the boy who buys shoes for his dying mother tied for second place.
I dislike "Away In A Manger" because it's all about feeling sorry for the poor baby Jesus instead of feeling happy that he was born. I much prefer "Joy To The World" and "Hark, The Herald Angels Sing" because they're happy.
And I'm glad you like my whale suggestion, Mary. It was serious. Adara liked whales -- sounds like it would be time to thank Heavenly Father for whales in the prayer that night. Why not? Whales are pretty cool.
Other churches have an "Advent" program on each of the four Sunday evenings before Christmas. My Mom took that idea and had our own Advent program on each of those four Sundays. Basically, it was an extra Family Home evening night, but we always talked about a Christmas themes, like the prophecies of Jesus or Christmas around the world. Usually we had some activity included, like throwing nylon rocks at Samuel the Lamanite or having a Pinata. Then we ended by lighting candles (one for each of the Sundays) and singing "Silent Night." It's definitely a tradition to look back on.
Thanks Martha. I had the beginnings of ideas along those lines, but your tradition helps to make my ideas more concrete. I keep getting this little booklets in Relief Society that have Christmas-related stories in them. I thought we might read them, so maybe we can do one each Sunday before Christmas. Thanks for your contribution.
So, I know it is March, but I skipped the gym this morning (forgot to wash my clothes - I'll be going when the kids get home from school) and I choose to spend a little computer time while the laundry finishes drying.
Our family does something different each year to "celebrate" Christmas, which means to truly honor the gift of the Savior at Christmas time. We start either the last Monday in November or the first Monday in December in Family Home Evening and talk about what we should do. The kids (older, of course, but your yongers will surprise you at times) always have good suggestions. The mom and dad definatley give it some thought before we sit down with the kids. We have done annoymous giving of things to people in need (like a food shopping trip for a recently divorced mother left secretly at her house), picked tags off trees at the mall and purchased the item requested, given money to someone in need (not the one I like the best because it usually does not involve the children), and we always make treats for our neighbors and the kids deliver them. One year we decided to do find someone to serve each Monday in December. I asked ward members if we could come do something for them in honor of Christmas. I had no problem filling 4 Monday's. One of our children was frustrated with having to do service, again, and commented that we shouldn't do service just at Christmas time. That got me thinking and so we decided that the 1st Monday of each month we would do a service project. It has not been as easy as I expected it would be (not as easy as it was at Christmas. Apparently, after Christmas, no one wants any help!). We have had to be creative. Some things have fallen into our laps and they are the most memorable because the people really needed and wanted our help. But they are few and far between. We have tried to do some secret acts (and have been caught on occasion). We have done some family search indexing, written missionaries, did a cleaning project at the church that was being neglected. But that one Christmas attempt to honor the Savior has turned into more than a year worth of creative service to others.
Merry Christmas 2010!
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