Christmas is almost here and parents we are up against a big challenge: How do we bring Jesus into the centre of our family’s Christmas in the face of the tsunami of commercialism?

Today I want to take a quick and fresh look at a practical example of how we as parents can take up our mantle and make Jesus the centre again. We’ll briefly go over a familiar text and I’ll show you how to avoid just repeating your church’s potentially narrow expression of the Christmas story. Plus with the help of some ideas people like yourself have sent in during our pre-Christmas quiz, I’ve got a list of ideas to share with you that will inspire you to get active.

This post is actually part two of a four part video series (these being the written version) exploring of how to bring Jesus into the centre of your family’s Christmas. Last time we saw how important it was for us not to outsource the teaching and celebrating of Christmas to others.
This might be your first dip into the series, so you may be wondering …Surely we can leave it to the experts…surely we can leave the teaching about the real meaning of Christmas to our churches, our Sunday school teachers our kids club leaders, our Christian school.. Surely we just have to worry about the food and presents right? …Wrong!

 

First of all, God has given parents the responsibility of teaching and modeling faith and values to their kids. Second, your church and mine all celebrate Christmas through the lens of their ‘traditions’ or ‘preferences’ as I like to call them. Now if that sounds like heresy or a bit weird..that’s what we covered in the last post, so if you missed that be sure to go back and get it (or watch it, see the links below). Now even if you’re not a parent, you’re going to learn a tonne here that you can apply to how you teach the Christmas story in your ministry and remember your main game is to support the work of parents.

The Shepherd and the King (Luke 2)

Let’s look at a text I’ve used to teach Christmas through one of Anton’s resources, our Shepherd and the King sticker stories. Based on Luke 2, I’m sure many of you know it well…we find the shepherds outside Bethlehem being totally freaked out by God’s messengers in the heavens. Note the location; Bethlehem is an insignificant town except for its connection with a great Israelite King, King David.

Some of the big clues I look for when I write shows for kids are not just geographical, but the emotional cues.
The shepherds were terrified.
Ask your kids…Why are they so scared? Christmas isn’t a scary time it’s a joyous time. So why were shepherds scared on the first Christmas?
Answer: Angels or messengers from God appeared in the sky and spoke from the heavens.
Now that is unusual, perhaps freaky. But is that why they are scared? Was it always like this with God?? Was man always afraid of God when he intruded so physically into our lives?
Go back to the book of Genesis and you see God walking in the garden with Adam and Eve. Life with God wasn’t scary it was intimate.
Why would anyone be scared of Heaven? Why is exposure to God, fearful dread?
So what happened...we went our own way, we became sinners.

Evangelism church – a funeral at Christmas?
So the Christmas story  exposes our guilt and shame… we can pause and still ask our kids... now this could be ripe pickings for us to emphasise the need for forgiveness and how Jesus death will pay for our sin. The evangelical church of mission might be quick to find that vein and exploit it. A means to an end.
We don’t want to lose sight of this important aspect of the story, but that’s not where the emphasis falls in the text...
We need to highlight the intention from heaven…the posture and words of the messengers are those of God…and they don’t bring words of dread or of judgment but reassurance and comfort…the angels say…
“Don’t be Afraid!”
Now is the time of favour, not fearful dread.
So Christmas is the time to hear of God’s favour, that his arms are wide open NOW. Yes there is a big gap between us, yes were in debt to God but he has bridged the gap. That’s what the baby is about.

Exalted Church – a sentimental, punches pulled celebration?
The angel’s message is not one of judgment or even of sin…“I bring to you good news and great joy”.
Ever had really good news…you are ecstatic! Face book lights up with capital letter posts…its joy.
What happens to the night sky…BOOM BOOM BOOM even brighter than the moon moon moon…?’
The sky fills with angels praising God, it’s a huge celebration.
So our Christmas’s celebrations should be exciting, not a funeral. People who see what we do should go…I want some of that man…that’s huge! Our kids should see the wonderful joy and peace with God that Jesus brings and our enthusiasm for it!
But it can’t be that celebration if we pull all the punches. If you’re church is great at celebrating but afraid to speak about source of our joy then it’s just a fire cracker. All we are doing is adding to the secular sentimentality.
So as parents we need to be self aware and ask ourselves: “are we putting on a big celebration with all the trimmings but with no substance; have we pulled all our punches? Why are we so glad to have Jesus in our lives?”

Suffering church? But this is Christmas!
Sometimes we can get so hung up on the glory that we forget this kid’s in for a hell of a ride. And so are we if we follow him. Now it may not be the primary accent of the story, but it is there…look where he is born…
If we look at the story in Luke 2 we’ll find that theme of suffering too. …the long awaited messiah is here…and his welcome is meager. Lying in swaddling cloths and manger. The town of Bethlehem, his own family’s town of royal lineage does not welcome him. His very first ‘baby steps’ are not easy ones. His life will soon be threatened by King Herod.
So if you’re family’s Christmas is a hard one, you’re in good company. Take comfort in the suffering boy savior.
Maybe that’s something you can talk about with your kids…’what is Christmas going to be like for Christians in Syria?’ How good would it do us to reflect on the suffering church at chrissy?
But it’s not everything. Remember the heavenly celebration the shepherd’s witnessed. God is in control here. We need to keep our eyes on the end point that the angels exposed on that night to the shepherds.

Social justice church- a time for good deeds?
Perhaps your church is big on social justice or works for the poor. Could or should that be a part of your family’s Christmas?
Jesus birth certainly aligns him with not the exalted royalty he deserves but the poor. He is revealed to smelly shepherds and a nobody couple called Mary and Joseph.
You can ask your kids…’why do you think God became a man?”
Jesus birth shows us that our humanness is important to God. He came to bring us back from the brink.
So as parents, how can we help our kids remember value of each person, especially the meek and the poor at Christmas?

Okay, so what I’ve tried to do here is show you inside what, 8 verses of Scripture, how the text supports the different emphasises of our churches worldwide. But I’ve also thrown down a bit of a challenge to you to not leave out or prefer one aspect over another. We need to hold them together.

Now I’ve been writing and performing for kids for over 10 years. It takes time and creativity to make the complex concepts simple for kids. That’s why I absolutely love performing my shows and publishing my resources. In a future video and post I’m going to show you how to get your hands on some of this expertise for your home. I want you to feel confident that you can teach your kids and that help is at hand to do it in such a way that we’re not just filling in time or emphasising one tradition of the church over another. Right now I just want to affirm you as a parent or teacher of kids and say ‘don’t give away your mantle’.

If you’ve got young wrigglers (1-4 year olds) then you won’t find it easy to just pick up a passage and discuss it. With primary age kids I think it is possible to sit around and read a passage and discuss it. And as I said in the next video there are some useful resources out there that I have found to be a help and I’ll take you through them.

But before we get there here’s 10 suggestions you can do that will help you as a family practically engage in the real Christmas and bring Jesus back into the centre. Some of these are my suggestions but a bunch of them came from a recent pre-Christmas survey of Anton’s supporters...

1.    Counter commercialism by getting your kids involved in raising money to donate to kids overseas that need e.g. operation Christmas child shoe box for Samaritan purse or donate a chicken
2.    Get your family involved in serving in some way at Christmas time – someone suggested doing something kind for someone in your street.
3.    Brainstorm friends, family or neighbours you could invite to your home around or on Christmas
4.    In the days leading up to Christmas, read a short passage of the story each night at meal time– mainly the synoptics.
5.    Prepare your families Christmas lunch by asking everyone to come and share something of what Jesus has meant to them this year.
6.    Use an advent calendar to retell the story in short episodes from the angel's appearance to Mary up to the birth of Jesus.
7.    Have a Christmas countdown Nativity set that adds a character to the set every day for 24 days of December
8.    Christmas songs/carols playing -
9.    Walk the streets and discuss the lights- someone suggested having no Santa decorations on your tree/home
10.    Thankfulness prayers on Christmas Day

That’s some practical ideas, but what about practical tools that can help you teach your kids in the hands on?
In the next video and post I’m gonna share some of my favourite chrissy resources…some you will least expect. But all of them involve YOU…that’s right resources work when you make them yours…

Right now why don’t you leave a comment or post me a message on Anton’s face book or check out the videos through the links below and leave a comment there.
Look out for the next video I’ll send you because I’m going to share with you a little resource I discovered along the way when I was trying to find something that would teach kids at Christmas and I couldn’t find anything that did the job…all in the next video/post.

How to read the Christmas Story with your kids (video)