Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Holiday Traditions
I've been thinking about holiday traditions ever since this weekend, and specifically, traditions centered around the religious meaning of the holiday. I was sitting in Church on Sunday, and it hit me quite hard that I had hardly devoted any time or thought to Christ and His Atonement this Easter. However, I found time to get my daughter an Easter basket, Easter dress, etc. She's too young to know the difference now, but I want to make sure that doesn't happen again, especially when she's old enough to understand. I would like to start some traditions for Easter and Christmas that help children focus on the true meaning of the holiday. Any ideas? What kinds of things do you do with your children, or did as a child yourself? Anything you plan on starting in the future???
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6 comments:
They had a good discussion about this on Tales from the Crib. I thought it had some good ideas.
You know, I've been thinking a lot about that, too. My parents never really did that for us so it's not always the first thing on my mind. I think that because we're going to church that that's all they need!
One of the few traditions in my family growing up was watching 'The Christmas Story' on Christmas Eve. It's a tradition that I've brought into my in-laws family now too. However, watching it two Christmas's ago with my precious three-month old in my arms, I realized that I probably wouldn't want him to watch it! It was the first time I really noticed some of the awful language and realized that it had nothing to do with Christmas!
Anyway, my point is I just recently watched 'The Nativity Story' and it was a beautiful movie! I think that will be one tradition that changes this year.
The like the idea about "The Nativity" movie. I haven't seen it, but i want too. What we did this year for Easter is have a FHE the monday before to make sure that my boys knew why we celebrated Easter. I must admit, that i have not been a very good FHE holder, but my husband and I are trying to do better. Since my boys are young, we kept the lesson short and sweet. But as they get older, I would like to believe that we will be able to talk more and more in dept about the true meaning of these holidays.
Incorporating hymns at home always adds to the Spirit.
We watched the Lamb of God movie on Saturday night (although I will admit that this year I had to cover my 3 year old's eyes at the crucifixion part, as she's now old enough to be concerned for Jesus and get a bit freaked out). On Sunday, she popped in The Restoration DVD that came in the Ensign a year or two ago, and I thought that one was TONS more appropriate for toddlers.
Also, although she waved to the Easter Bunny in the mall, we never mentioned him to her. I'm sure she'll pick up the belief in him on her own through friends, and that's fine with me, but by the time last Christmas came around, I was so sick of talking about Santa Claus that I just couldn't take it any more. When I brought up that dilemma last month in our ward's parenting class, the teacher responded that in her family, the gifts are from the parents, and Santa is sidelined as the guy who fills the stockings, but who doesn't get much attention otherwise. I really liked that. I felt like it incorporated the social traditions (I don't want my girls to be the kids who ruin it for everybody else at school), but focused more on the real meaning of the holidays, as well as offering gratitude to the people who really give the presents.
Correction: It wasn't The Restoration that she popped in; it was Finding Faith in Christ (makes more sense, hunh?).
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