NOT Skipping Christmas

Quite a few years ago I read a book called Skipping Christmas.  In this book, an empty-nest couple decides to forego spending money on their Christmas activites and instead, send themselves on a cruise.  During this process, they do a wonderful job of ticking off most of their friends and neighbors who don't agree with their new tradition.

For all of you who think we are weird (after all, we do homeschool and we don't watch tv!) and radical (at least we are trying to be), rest assured that we are NOT skipping Christmas at our house this year.  We have a wreath on the door, a tree with ornaments, baby Jesus in the manger, and lights on our garage (that's another story for another day).  My middle name is not Grinch or Ebenezzer.

And although I think it is a great idea to forego spending tons of money at Christmas.  I do not agree with the idea of spending it all on yourself by taking an expensive vacation.  The idea would be to use the money you saved (from say, not sending out Christmas cards) and give it away to a charitable organization.

We have been talking as a family on how we can make our Christmas more "radical" this year.  We have two ideas so far (besides the no Christmas card policy).  We are going to skip stocking stuffers.  And we are going to skip our traditional Target shopping night where the boys buy gifts for the girls and the girls buy gifts for the boys.  With the money we save from these ventures, we are going to buy goats and chickens for needy families, through Samaritan's Purse.

One tradition that we institued years ago that has helped keep the gift buying in check, is that each child receives only 3 presents, just like Jesus did.  This actually is harder said than done.  It's so easy to get caught up in the "spirit" of Christmas.  Funny thing is, when I asked my kids what they wanted for Christmas, they couldn't even come up with three ideas.  I pointed out that this was probably due to the fact that they needed nothing.

Our Sunday School virtue this month is Generosity. 
The theme is: Wrapped Up!  What are you wrapped up in this Christmas?. 
The memory verse is I Timothy 6:18 "Be rich in good deeds... be generous and willing to share." 
I think I am learning just as much as the kids are!!  Here is a little piece of the leaders overview from yesterday's lesson:

James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” So, we know that God is the Giver of all good things. But we also know that God’s generosity has a purpose.

God gives generously to us so that we may be generous toward others. The Bible says, “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” 2 Corinthians 9:11, NIV In other words, God gives generously to us so we will have time, emotional energy, patience, and a wealth of resources to give to others. Then, when we are generous with all we have been given, others will see us and be thankful to God.

So many times we think that our ability to be generous is connected to our riches. We are afraid to give because we don’t know if we have enough, and we think generosity is for those who have more than we do to give. But the cool thing about generosity is that we’re not generous because we are rich, we are rich because we are generous. When we choose to give generously to others, we are blessed with everything that really matters in life.

Even though we are skipping parts of our Christmas, our intent is not to tick off any of our family or friends.  What we really want to do is focus on the real reason for the season.  The fact that our amazing God loves us so much, that He humbled himself and came to the earth to live among a bunch of sinners, just so He could die to save them.  And sharing that message of good news is better than hanging up our stockings "by the chimney with care".

Have a blessed week!

Krystal