As I write this, it's 26 days until Christmas. YIKES!  So much to do, so little time. Take a breath, and listen to some advice from a sage and wizened mother:

1. Create traditions, not expectation of consumptive greed
2. Make gift giving meaningful.

I just saw a Wal-Mart commercial in which the entire background is of a preschooler reciting all the things they want for Christmas. Don't fall for it! What a child really wants is the expectation of family traditions. What do you remember of your early Christmases? Do you remember the presents you received, or the presence of your family? I'll venture to say it was the latter.

My own sons are now far away, and rarely make it home for Christmas morning. I have heard from the horses mouth that they miss what we did not what they received. Leading up to the day, we baked together, trimmed the tree together (boys are really awful at this!) and found ways to appreciate those in our little community. On Christmas day we always had a fire in the fireplace, had a breakfast with homemade cinnamon rolls, read the Christmas story from Luke 2 and enjoyed the Christmas "slugfest". Slugfest? Well, we were a family of dominant males. I will elaborate on this before the Christmas Program.

My point is this, my sons, now grown men, still have fond memories of Christ and family as the heart of their Christmas. They may not have gotten what they wanted, but they knew they were part of something bigger and timeless.

As far as meaningful gift giving; Gifts are part of the original Christmas story. The Wise men came about a year after Christ's birth with their gifts. But what meaningful gifts they were! Gold was the gift of royalty. They knew Christ was a king of undisputable order. Frankincense was a gift of Jewish religious function. They knew Jesus was the essence of Judaism. Myrrh was used in Jewish death rituals. They also knew he was destined to die.

We have no reason to believe that these men had any Biblical knowledge, but God placed in their hearts what was needed for Christ's life and death.
What do your children need? It's probably not on sale, and I'll bet it doesn't need batteries to operate. Know your child, and give from that, rather than the latest Wal-Mart commercial and you won't go wrong!

Brenda