Do you ever feel bored during Christmas break? Are you tired of the same old traditions? Try something new this year!
1.Take part in a church or community presentation of Handel's Messiah. Attend a candlelight Christmas Eve service at church. Brad remembered the Christmas programs he'd been in as a kid. Sure, he used to dread having to dress up in his bathrobe, put a dish towel on his head, and be a shepherd. But at least he'd felt a part of things. So this year he volunteered to play Joseph in his church's Christmas program. He had a blast, and his participation made the small children more enthusiastic.
2.Instead of using the same old holiday gift wrap, go for something different. Try wrapping presents in scraps of material, old road maps, Sunday comics, or colorful posters. Or take construction paper or shelf paper and draw your own design. Or use the box-in-a-box trick.
3. What about filling a Christmas stocking for your mom? Think about all the years she's filled one for you. If she doesn't have her own stocking, you can make or buy her a personalized one. Fill it with all sorts of useful trivia. Dawn surprised her mom by buying a pair of red pantyhose and filling both legs with gifts—everything from dish towels and notepaper to hand lotion and rubber gloves.
4. Make up a treasure hunt with a series of clues leading someone to his or her gift. You can even make it a Scripture hunt, using Bible verses with allusions to places or things.
5. Remember a missionary or student missionary with a holiday card, letter, or gift. One Christmas Sue sent a missionary friend in Africa a Christmas card with a snow scene on it. The missionary wrote that she hung the card on her wall as a reminder of the beautiful winters in her native Minnesota. (That's different from the Christmas summers they enjoy in Australia!)
6. Add an ethnic touch to your Christmas. You might buy or make a piñata out of papier-mAche. Learn what special foods your grandparents ate and try making them. Ben's grandparents were Lithuanian and loved beet soup at Christmas. Anne's were Ukrainian and always had a kind of raisin bread.
7. Invite someone outside your family to share your Christmas. It might be a classmate whose parents will be out of town, a neighbor who has lost a mate, or a church friend. If your parents don't okay the hospitality idea, then visit the person in his or her own home and bring a little Christmas there. Mike discovered a lonely widow on his paper route. She always seemed eager to talk when he collected each week. He sensed that she didn't have many relatives or friends. When she confided that she was spending Christmas alone, Mike visited her on Christmas Eve and took her a little basket of Christmas goodies.
The most important thing you can do is to remember what Christmas is all about and find new ways to spread God's love to those around you.
