How To Make Time For Christmas Family Activities

Sexy Lady Santa

Over the years, I have compiled a number of ideas on how to really celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. A lot of these ideas focus on keeping Christ at the center of the season and treasuring Him in our traditions. When I share these ideas on how to make time for Christmas family activities, I usually call it, "5 Secrets to Rekindling Your Family´s Spirit of Christmas." I want to share the first secret and a story about it with you in this article.

Make Time for Christmas Family Activities - Be Less Busy!

The first thing is just to be less busy. Steve and I talk about this and how busy people are. Just going from one activity to the other. We need to slow down and aim to quiet our hearts and our families during Advent season. So instead of the hurry up, rush, and shop thing, we can spend time reading, discussing, and just spending time together.

Make Time for Christmas Family Activities - My Own Story

I have certainly been in the midst of bustle before. My story has to do with wanting to do every activity possible.

When I was younger, I loved all the activities associated with Christmas. There was the church dinner, the school parties, the soccer team party, looking at lights, Christmas in the part, live nativity scenes, cookie exchanges, and so on.

The problem was not the activities, but that I wanted to do EVERY single activity. And every day, I could be going and doing, I was. Even today, I would probably be just as happy doing an activity every day of Advent. But God calls us to a slower pace, and sometimes that means taking a step back, being quiet, and reflecting on Him.

I wanted to go-go-go, but I had a husband that did not want to go-go-go. What I discovered for us is I needed to be a little more flexible with my spouse. I needed to see what was good for Steve. Because he was working all day long. He did not want to come home every night to a new activity, even if that was a good activity, even if it was reaching out and doing something at the church or stuffing boxes to send to the service men overseas.

There are lots of every good activities, but if we are constantly going to a bunch of activities, we lose some of our family. What we decided is we needed to take a step back and not be so busy doing all the activities. What we needed to do, and what we started to do, and what specifically mom, the organized person who loves structure and activity had to do was get along with my husband who was a little more laid back. He wanted to come home and just enjoy us, enjoy the tree, and enjoy some of the decorations and us being a family.

Make Time for Christmas Family Activities - Choose Wisely!

We decided to just choose one or two activities each year. That is what happened with our family. And that is going to look different for each family. For your family it may be something at church. For another family, it may be going downtown to look at lights. Maybe fixing hot chocolate and taking it in a thermos to drive around and look at the lights. We have a cool light scene south of town where there are thousands of lights. That is a fun thing.

Get together with your spouse and talk about what you really want to do as a family to pass along the joy and wonder of this season. Focus on those activities and let the rest (and the guilt) go. Be less busy and really enjoy your Christmas family activities!

Kerry Beck gives free advent calendars with daily Christmas activities to prepare your family for Christmas. Pick up a FREE Advent Calendar at http://www.ChristmasCelebrationIdeas.com.