Ways to Teach your Kids the True Meaning of Christmas

• I tell my children over and over that we celebrate Christmas because it is Jesus's birthday. Kids really relate to the idea of a birthday. We bake a cake for baby Jesus on Christmas Eve and sing "Happy Birthday" to him before we eat it on Christmas Day. The gifts we give him are the presents we buy for kids in our city who otherwise might not have presents at Christmas.

• Have a Nativity Scene the kids can play with. Ours is the Little People Nativity. (I am not at all compensated by Toys R'Us, they just happen to have the best price I've seen on this, so I'm linking you there.) It is my favorite Christmas decoration to bring out every year! As your kids play with it, talk about the story of Jesus's birth.

(our version here is minus the angel on top, I took the set with me when I taught the preschoolers at our church last Sunday and somehow didn't get home with the angel. Thankfully there is a little blessing called Ebay and a new angel is in the mail to me as I type this for 99 cents plus shipping! Watching a roomful of 4 year olds play with the nativity all morning was more than worth that!)

• If your own church does not put on a Christmas program for kids, check out other churches in your area, many do really great, free performances especially for children that can help illustrate the true meaning of Christmas.

• Watch the Dr. Seuss - How the Grinch Stole Christmas/Horton Hears a Who movie. When it ends you can have some great discussion with your kids about why the Whos in Whoville were still joyful even when the grinch had stolen all their gifts, decorations, and food. Talk about how the best gift of Christmas is Jesus and that can never be taken away.

• Even decorating gingerbread houses can be a way to point to Jesus's birth. We do some sort of gingerbread creation from a kit each year. This year we did a small village and turned one of the houses into a manger scene. The animals are animal crackers, the manger is 2 pieces of Cracklin' Oatbran cereal stacked, and Jesus? Well, He's a gumdrop. I hope He's not offended!

Here's the whole village:

• Read quality children's books that reflect on Jesus's birth. Our favorite:

• On Christmas Eve our kids open 1 gift each that is new Christmas pajamas (makes for adorable Christmas morning pictures). We then snuggle up with them in their jammies and read the Christmas story from the Bible, Luke 2:1-20.

***I am an Amazon.com affiliate, so should you click on either of my 2 links (for the book & the movie) and purchase from Amazon, I will receive a small amount of the sale. Any proceeds will be donated to Children's Hopechest. Their purpose is to attempt to restore wholeness to the brokenness that is orphanhood.

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