All Things Supercinski

I enjoy reading about other families’ traditions around the holidays, especially families with preschoolers. We want to be purposeful in our Christmas traditions in that everything points our children back to the true meaning of Christmas–that God became a helpless baby, born in a barn of all places, as a part of his plan to redeem us to himself. In seeking this goal, we have chosen not to do Santa, but that is not the point of this post. Many of these ideas are from the book, Treasuring God in Our Traditions, by Noel Piper. Thomas gave me this book when we were engaged, and I highly recommend it.

Every night during Advent, we read a bit of the Christmas story, repeating the previous nights’ portions so that by the end, everyone has just about memorized the story. We read an adaptation of Noel Piper’s advent calendar story (DG used to sell a simple Nativity scene calendar and Noel’s readings. It was discontinued a few years ago, but I got the readings from a friend) and use this magnetic Nativity Advent calendar. We keep it on our kitchen table on a cookbook stand for the month of December.

We started a new tradition this year of doing a Jesse Tree. Every night during Advent, we also look back at many events, beginning with Creation and ending with the birth of Jesus, looking at the big picture of waiting for the promised salvation of God. We borrowed a little tree from my mom, but a branch would suffice. We are doing these child-friendly readings . Each night we read a Scripture, discuss, and hang the related ornament on our little Jesse tree. I bought many of the ornaments at Hobby Lobby–they have little painted wooden cutouts that go perfectly and are nicer than cardstock. The rest I have made from felt or painted little wooden squares to go on the tree. Here is a sample for inspiration:

We also keep kid-friendly nativity scenes out for the kids to play with, but I think we need to hide Baby Jesus and only bring him out at Christmas because he is a highly coveted item between these two kids! I also like Kendra’s idea about leaving an empty cradle under the tree.

On Christmas morning, we bake a cake for Jesus as a way to celebrate His birth. This may be Josiah’s favorite part!

In an effort to steer the focus away from gifts and teach about giving, we assemble Operation Christmas Child boxes each year. This was an easy thing for Josiah to understand and we talked about and prayed for the little boy who would receive the box of items Josiah had helped pick out for him.

From Noel Piper, “May our decorations, gifts, and festivities–or lack of them–never block our view of him (Jesus) but always point us toward him.”

If you would like to read our advent calendar readings, you can read on. (Thanks again, Megan, for typing them up for us.)

The item in bold each day is what will be behind the door.

December 1: Jesus is the greatest Treasure of all. This is the story of how he came to us.

Long ago, God made a promise about a little town named Bethlehem. He said, “O Bethlehem…from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel.” Jesus is the King that God promised to send.

One time, a long time ago, in Bethlehem there was a place called a stable. In the stable there was a manager filled with hay for the animals to eat. Animals like a sheep…

December 2: And a calf.

December 3: and his mother, the cow.

December 4: There was also a donkey who lived in the stable.

December 5: One day the animals had a big surprise. A woman came to stay in the stable. Her name was Mary, and she was glad to rest in the stable with the animals, because she was going to have a baby, very soon!

December 6: Her husband, Joseph, was with her. Before they traveled to Bethlehem, an angle of God told him in a dream that the baby was God’s son. The angel said, “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” The baby was the King God had promised.

December 7: Mary and Joseph could not find a cozy inn or a warm house to stay in because the emperor had commanded all the people to go to their hometowns and sign up for paying taxes. Little Bethlehem was filled with people, so there was no room for Mary and Joseph. Their baby would be born in the stable with the animals, under the stars.

December 8: Out in the fields near Bethlehem, there was a shepherd.

December 9: …taking care of his sheep…

December 10: …out under the stars.

December 11: Maybe there were other shepherds with him….

December 12: …to help him take care of the sheep.

December 13: In the sky, there were lots of stars.

December 14: But God also sent a very special star.

December 15: Far away, a wise man saw the star and said “This is the sign that a special king has been born. I must find him and worship him. I’ll bring him a royal gift of gold.”

December 16: So he got his camel ready to travel.

December 17: …and he brought along another wise man who had a gift of rich perfume, called frankincense, for the King.

December 18: He came on his camel to find the king.

December 19: and he brought with him a third wise man who prepared a gift of precious oil, called myrrh for the king.

December 20: When he had packed his baggage on his camel, all the wise men set out on the long, long journey to find the king that God had promised.

December 21: One night, an angel, of the Lord appeared to the shepherds. And the glory of the Lord shone around them. They were filled with fear. But the angel said, “Fear not. I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

December 22: Suddenly, there was a multitude of angels, praising God and saying “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

December 23: When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds, who were watching their sheep, said to one another, “Let us o into Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

December 24: And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby Jesus lying in the manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

When Jesus grew up, he died and rose from the dead to save us from our sins. He is our greatest Treasure!