Cornforth Adventures: How do you Celebrate Christmas Part 3

Monday, December 22, 2008

How do you Celebrate Christmas Part 3

Decorating the Christmas Tree is a Blast, but it is also a process of teaching and singing, and loving and remembering.....
For our family we have our traditions, as I am sure each of you has yours, one of our traditions is to talk about the ornaments and their meanings..... First we Decorate the home in garland, as an additional reminder of the evergreen, eternal life given to us....
here is the Princess singing joyfully to us :)

Buddy is so sweet with his working on ornaments.... The VERY first first first thing is LIGHTS to be hung...
Light for Jesus called himself the "Light of the world" John 9:5... and in Matthew 4:14 we are called as followers of Christ also lights.... The great Prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 9:2The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them. ....." so first we LIGHT our tree.

Then we have a red bead garland, it rather looks like dried cranberries only they'd be too big, that's just what the kids call it... It reminds us as it is dragged from bottom to top of the RED thread of scripture, of it's continuity, of the blood line from Adam to Noah, to Shem to Jesse to David to Jesus, and extending down to you and to me, who have been adopted and redeemed into the family grafted into the kinship of the KING.... that we too are in the LINE, members of the HOUSE of the Lord....

Then come the ornaments first ornaments to be hung are "personal" ornaments that family or friends have given to us over the years, it is a time to un pack them and remember, the year, the person, sometimes the loved one has passed on, and it is a bittersweet opening.... but remembering and telling the children, is important. Any Golden ornament is announced and we remind ourselves that "Jesus is the KING of kings" Revelation 1:5... and we also remember the gift of the wise man.... If a silver ornament is found to be hung we remember for how much he was betrayed....

Then comes any angels, because they were God sent to announce Jesus' birth to Mary and to Joseph as well as to the shepherds... This is told in both Luke 1 & 2... :)

Then come our straw ornaments... I have many of these, collected throught the years, they are beautiful... We talk about how Jesus was placed in a manger warm with hay, or at least a trough where animals once fed.... and this is a reminder of the meager start of this humble KING.... That God chose this for himself, that NONE could claim a more meager beginning, a humbler start, is awesome and should cause pause..... These ornaments are often hung in silence after the talk, but they are shaped like stars, and we talk about the star that was in the sky, they are shaped like bells and other things too.... it is a wonderful time....

Then comes RED.... We decorate things in red, red bells and red bows, for the blood that would be spilled to pay for my sins, and a bow and a bell, for the beauty that only HE could make of all that sin, all that mess, all that blood... Only God in his infinate wisdome could make anything out of mans wretchedness, and He has, he has made us redeemed, has saved us from the mire, adopted us, and for that we are so thankful.... so thankful!!!

There is the nail to be nailed, into the tree, the baby to be laid beneath, the gifts to go under to remind us that Jesus is the greatest gift of all..... and to remember those wise men....

It takes a long time to decorate, we read scriptures, we sing songs and laugh and dance and take photos... Only Caspian hides himself behind the tree :) It is fun fun fun!!!

And there is learning, and next year we shall do it again, for we do it every year, and if I forget even a single thing, the older ones, they catch it now.... they fill in my memory, and we keep going and going and going with our little tradition :)