Christmas and Your Kids

This year Christmas is on Sunday. Will that make a difference to how your family celebrates?

For us Christmas being on Sunday is not a big deal, but it did mean we had to adjust how we celebrated opening presents on Christmas morning. When our kids were little and woke up on Christmas before the break of dawn, it was really easier. But as they got older and wanted to sleep late and open presents at a leisurely pace, that was a different story.

I'm not sure what Sunday's are like for you normally, but in our house, my husband (the pastor) is up around 5:30. He takes that time to not only get ready, but also to rehearse his sermon once or twice more before the 8:30 service. He is focused on all that will happen, so it makes it hard for him to relax. So when Christmas is on Sunday, we allowed the kids to open some of the presents before church and even take one to the service. Skip, my husband, would even encourage other little kids to bring a gift to Christmas and then he would bless the toys during the children's sermon time. Then after church, we opened the rest of the gifts and then packed up to go to one of the grandparents for dinner.

I'm writing about this now, so that we can think ahead and plan. While it might be easy to see a Sunday Christmas as an intrusion into a family time, it can also be an opportunity to talk to kids about the real meaning of Christmas and back it up with a new way to celebrate.

Grace, Kathy