
- Meaningful ways to celebrate Christmas and other Holidays
Part 3 - Miracles of Christmas - How it went
This is a 3 part post - Parts 1 and 2 were written prior to the 2009 Christmas holiday. This is Part 3, the story of how the Miracles of Christmas went for our family!
The Miracles of Christmas is a new way to celebrate a more meaningful Christmas or other Holiday. The idea is to allow one Christmas/Holiday wish per person and then to give that person the undivided attention and participation of the whole family or group for an allotted time period, agreed upon by all. If you have a large family, you may wish or need to spread this out over a couple days, and if you have a small family; you may choose to allow more time for each person. You create the guidelines.
Thanksgiving morning, November 25, 2009, our family came up with a new and meaningful way to celebrate Christmas. After bringing it up and discussing it with my spouse over Thanksgiving breakfast, we decided we should discuss the idea with the rest of the family - they loved the idea! The fact we all agreed that it was at least a good idea in theory, is a miracle in and of itself. The idea is about making dreams and wishes come true, it’s about The Miracles of Christmas, and it might even make a Scrooge look forward to Christmas again. Perhaps this will be the Christmas or Holiday celebration of your future. Of course this theme may be used at other holidays such as Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, birthdays, you name it.
How it Went: There were 8 of 10 family members participating in our Miracles of Christmas event for our first try. One person chose to stay home with the baby. The participants each chose an event for the whole family to participate in, other members were required to participate with their full and undivided attention. The family members included 3 adults and five kids from 3-16 years old and one 4 year old Golden Retriever. Here's the activity list and order of the day:
- Build two snow forts (We had lots of snow!)
- Have a snowball fight between the two forts
- Go to Angels Restaurant for hot chocolate and hot lunch
- Go sledding on the big hill at Memorial Park
- Make Christmas cookies and eat almost all of them (saved some for neighbor)
- Eat dinner - hot soup from the crock pot
- Go Christmas caroling with cookies at the neighbors
- Story time with Grandma (The Kingdom of LunHanHouHow)
We all helped build the snow forts and all participated in throwing and receiving snowballs! Some people cried because they were getting hit too much, but they were resourceful and went and got a bicycle helmet to wear.
The kids love this particular restaurant and with our appetite worked up, everyone ate everything and even asked for more!
The sledding was a big hit for everyone, but Grandma thinks the hills have gotten bumpier since her kids were little.
Believe it or not, the 16 year old boy wanted to make the cookies, I suppose just so he could eat them and maybe so he didn't have to do something outside in the cold December winter. In any case, the cookies were a big hit.
It was Grandpa's idea to go Christmas caroling. We had warned told the neighbor we were coming ahead of time and when we arrived, the littlest one was mesmerized y the beautiful Christmas tree and other decorations around the house, and the neighbor looks like Mrs Claus, so he took off his shoes and decided to stay a while. We sang and exchanged Christmas cookies (we weren't expecting to get cookies, but oh well, the more the merrier!), and had a jolly old time.
Then it was back to Grandma and Grandpa's house for storytime. I told the story of The Kingdom of LunHanHouHow, which was the story of how my parents came to America from Norway. I pretended my parents were King and Queen, and I used YouTube videos to show them how the ship sailed on the stormy seas from Norway to America, and we learned some Norwegian Christmas songs. We tried to dress the part, Grandpa even wearing knickers for authenticity. :) At the end of the story, I dubbed all the children and grandchildren either Angels (remember the Angels restaurant?) or Princes. (My kids were Princes (dubbed the Prince of Strength and Knowledge) and my grandkids were Angels - Angels of Serentiy, Happiness, Adventure, etc.). Each one received a small gift (because we're Grandma and Grandpa and we couldn't help ourselves) as they were dubbed with a Star Wars light saber (from my oldest son's favorite movie).
The planning and scheduling took some effort, we started after church on a Sunday, around Noon, and finished around 9PM. I'm sure sleep came easy and not a creature was stirring that night.
This event has brought about a new tradition in our family, one of sharing some quality family time together, enjoying each other's company more fully, and has eliminated entirely the commercialization of Christmas.
Alternatively, you may wish to choose 2 or 3 main activities that everyone agrees on. Simplify the process a little bit if a lot of people are involved. Every year will be different and memorable in its own way. You can make this as easy or as elaborate as you wish.
For me, this was truly a Miracle of Christmas. It has been the best Christmas I've ever had and I will treasure the memory of it forever, in this life and the life in the hereafter, I'm sure.
Merry Christmas to you and yours, and may the spirit of the Miracles of Christmas be part of your holiday season now and forevermore.
See Part 1: The Miracles of Christmas - The Plan
See Part 2: 58 Miracles of Christmas - Ideas to get you started
This is Part 3: After the Miracles of Christmas - Our personal story - how did it go (published after Christmas 2009)