Making Christmas Meaningful
December 11, 2008 by Heather Goldsmith
Filed under Home & Living
I’m the first to admit that Christmas has become a time for commercialism and more than necessary hype. To help balance out this each year my family takes the time to recount, in different ways, the story of Christmas. We relate things we are grateful for over the year to each other and take the time to listen to each family member before opening presents. We hope in this way to always remember that Christmas is about more than just gifts, but about Christ, other people and their needs.
So, how do you counteract the blatant commercialism with your own Christmas family celebrations? If you don’t currently do anything significant perhaps you should. Write about what you could do with your family in your journal. Start with what is important to you about this time of year and try to think of ways to bring this into light in your home celebrations. List ideas and pick a time to discuss these with the family. They might have some good ideas, too. Suggest they think about it, too. Find something you all agree on and keep it as your own tradition as one way to help make Christmas meaningful and not an empty tradition void of life. You might like to begin a special events journal as one way to help in your endeavour.
I hope you enjoy this journal writing prompt. Please leave any comments in the section below.
Heather
Photo used with permission from Newscom
Reading your prompt has made me very nostalgic. We have no family living close by anymore, so the family traditions are fond memories. I need to put them down on paper right now!
Merry Christmas to you and yours, Heather!
Hi Eileen,
Thanks for responding. I think this is one of the main reasons to hold family based traditions. At least you have those to remember, although you can no longer continue doing them. Please, write them down in your journal, or make a visual page about your memories. What a thing to treasure. Happy Christmas to you, too.
This is a good thought. Implementing with some of my more material-loving family members might be difficult. I have a bro and sister who just love the gifts, mostly.
Hi Peggy,
Yeah, I think the hardest part is starting something like this. Once you make it a tradition you begin to get more enjoyment out of it. We only do this with our immediate family, though. For the rest of the family it’s just a sort of see what happens kind of day. Thanks for your comment.