Teaching Your Children the True Meaning of Christmas
Nowadays, during the Christmas season we tend to get caught up in the rush of the Christmas season. Preparing and sending out Christmas cards, shopping and wrapping Christmas gifts all take up a lot of our time during the Christmas season. In all of this preparation, we often forget to stop and think of the true meaning of Christmas and in doing so, we do often forget how important it is to teach our children that the Christmas holiday is not all about Santa Claus and his team of eight (or nine if you count good old Rudolph) reindeer delivering gifts and popping out of the family fireplace every year.
For those of the Christian faith, Christmas is a very special day of religious observation. While studies show these days that we may possibly be celebrating Christmas at the wrong time of the year, Christmas was first celebrated in remembrance of the birth of baby Jesus and the journey that the Virgin Mary and her husband Joseph made on a donkey to Bethlehem. They were denied lodging at every inn, for many other people were in town for the same reason that Mary and Joseph were, so an official count could be made of all of the King's people. The family eventually settled into a manger, where the Mary gave birth to her son without the help of a physician.
A good way of teaching your children the Christmas story without making it a religious experience is to purchase the children's story version of the Christmas Story. Small, thin books can be purchased in any store, especially during the Christmas season. During the rest of the year, larger book store chains like Barnes and Noble, Borders, and B. Dalton will carry books like this, although you may have to search in a particular section.
The internet may also be a great resource for teaching your children the true meaning of Christmas. Northpolesantaclaus.com is a great web page for kids during Christmas time. It has a link for the kids to email Santa Claus if they so choose, and there are also web pages that they can go to learn about the ways that children in other countries celebrate their Christmas holiday, including the different versions of Santa Claus that they incorporate into their celebration.
Coloring books are sold during the Christmas season that tell the story of Mary and Joseph's journey on donkey back. Generic versions of these, in story book form, are sold at department stores and grocery markets all over. If you have a family Christian store or some other Christian book store, they will have the more biblicized versions of the Christmas Story in them. Coloring these pictures with crayons can give kids a visual idea of the story and what happened the night that Jesus Christ was born. This can also be a great lesson in reading for your younger children, as well.