Tag Archives: Holidays

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Our Tradition: A Birthday Cake For Jesus

This is part of the series The Gifts Of The Holidays: Celebrating Thanksgiving And Christmas. Read more from the series!

Since Christmas is the day we celebrate Jesus’ birth, it’s only appropriate that we celebrate with a cake.

The Gifts Of Christmas

Every year, we bake a birthday cake for Jesus. Sometimes it’s a simple sheet cake with frosting and candles. Other times, it’s been a cheesecake, or something more elaborate.

After we read the birth narrative and open presents, we relax for the afternoon. Well, the kids and I do. Heather is busy preparing Christmas dinner. This year, she will have the help of not only our older children, but also the assistance of my mother, who moved to our town this year.

One of the things we’ll be preparing is the birthday cake. And after we eat dinner, we will light the candles and sing Happy Birthday to the King of Kings.

Seems kind of fitting.

But we might need to stop adding another candle every year…

Do you celebrate Jesus’ birthday as a birthday as well as more traditional Christmas celebrations? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Our Tradition: Reading The Birth Narrative

This is part of the series The Gifts Of The Holidays: Celebrating Thanksgiving And Christmas. Read more from the series!

One of our Christmas Day traditions is the reading of the birth narrative.

The Gifts Of Christmas

In my imagination, this is a serene setting, the tree aglow, all the children sitting quietly as I read the story of Christ’s birth from Matthew and Luke from my study Bible.

In reality, the scene isn’t so tranquil.

Our kids range in age from 12 years to 12 months old. And we have five of them. You can imagine how hectic our Christmas morning can be.

Here’s a glimpse of our typical Christmas.

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The Gift Of Life

This is part of the series The Gifts Of The Holidays: Celebrating Thanksgiving And Christmas. Read more from the series!

As we start to wrap up the Gifts of the Holidays series, I want to take a look at one final gift: the gift of life.

The Gifts of Christmas

There are lots of things that remind me of the gift of life, all year long:

  • Flowers blooming in the spring.
  • Caterpillars turning into butterflies.
  • Robins singing.
  • Baby chickens at Easter.

But nothing speaks of new life like a newborn baby.

Can you imagine the noises in that stable, as Mary and Joseph watched their newborn child? The crying, fussing infant squirming and wriggling as he adjusted to life outside of the womb. The slight smacking sound of suckling. The hushed exclamations of wonder and awe as two new parents looked into the face of their new child, knowing that they looked into the face of God.

How amazing that must have been!

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The Gift Of Love

This is part of the series The Gifts Of The Holidays: Celebrating Thanksgiving And Christmas. Read more from the series!

Perhaps one of the most significant gifts of Christmas is the gift of love.

The Gifts of Christmas

God is love. John 4:8-12 give us a great explanation of love:

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Love came into our world from Heaven.

Love entered humanity as a baby.

Love became one of us that night in Bethlehem.

Love saved us from ourselves, from our sin.

We most often think of love at weddings, or on Valentine’s Day.

But perhaps we need to take a deeper look at the concept of love.

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Our Tradition: Christmas Eve Candle Light Service

This is part of the series The Gifts Of The Holidays: Celebrating Thanksgiving And Christmas. Read more from the series!

My family has a tradition that I’d never heard of when I was a kid: Christmas Eve services.

The Gifts of Christmas

I first heard of this idea when I started my first youth ministry in El Dorado Springs, Missouri. We had a candle light and communion service on Christmas Eve. It was a completely new idea for me.

Here’s the basic concept: On Christmas Eve, churches gather for a special service, incorporating Christmas carols, candles, and communion. It’s brief, but very special.

As a kid, I’d never even heard of this. My family always spent Christmas Eve with my dad’s side of the family. If my church had one of these services, I never knew about it.

But now, it has become a very special part of our celebration.

I love the time it gives for my family to remember specifically the sacrifice that the baby in the manger came to be. It brings it home for us.

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The Gift Of Forgiveness

This is part of the series The Gifts Of The Holidays: Celebrating Thanksgiving And Christmas. Read more from the series!

One of the most overlooked gifts of Christmas is the gift of forgiveness.

The Gifts of Christmas

It’s too easy to get caught up in the commercialization of Christmas is America:

  • The presents.
  • The shopping.
  • The parties.
  • The expectations.
  • The credit card bills.
  • The food.
  • The decorations.
  • The family.

We have managed to turn the focus of Christmas away from Christ and onto ourselves. We’ve made it all about us. What we want. What we want to give. Where we want to go. How we want to celebrate.

But that is not the reason to celebrate.

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The Gift Of Acceptance

This is part of the series The Gifts Of The Holidays: Celebrating Thanksgiving And Christmas. Read more from the series!

Perhaps one of the most craved gifts of Christmas is acceptance.

The Gifts of Christmas

We have such a difficult time with this one, don’t we?

It’s easy to accept those who…

  • Are like us.
  • Have similar interests.
  • Exist in similar circles.
  • We want to be like.
  • Like us.

Fortunately for us, that’s not how God operates.

Imagine if he came to earth to save only the people he liked. Those he didn’t like would have no hope. Those who hated him would be destined for hell. Those who sinned would be out of luck.

That includes you and me.

That’s a hard scenario to imagine, but really, in God’s perfect justice, he would have the right to do just that if he wanted.

Thankfully, he chose to be loving and accepting instead.