I don't recall having an advent calendar growing up. And I always wanted one. The one where you got to open a door and eat a piece of chocolate each day until Christmas! After tasting that chocolate as an adult however, I realized I wasn't really missing anything as a child. *My annual Dutch chocolate letter was a different story! Maybe I'll tell you about that sometime.
When I was single and then married without children, advent calendars weren't that important. As a mom though, it's a whole new ball game!
A very dear and talented friend made me an advent calendar a few years ago and I love it! It's cute and fun to use and my kids are starting to love it too. The only thing I have a problem with is that it's not easy to get them to understand that Christmas is really about Jesus when there's a 4 foot Santa on the wall!
We recently talked again about Christmas being a celebration of Jesus' birth and about the wise men giving him presents because he was a King. Maybe if we keep going over it Christmas gift giving will soon become more than Santa to my children. After all, and I know it's cliche, but Jesus IS the reason for the season.
2 comments:
I sorta have the same problem with Santa - you see I have a fairly large Santa collection. I collected them before I decided I really should focus more on Jesus. But they're too nice to just get rid of. So I've decided to tell the girls the story of Kris Kringle or Christ Kindle - meaning Christ Child. He is Jesus's right hand man and used to be dipicted as a young child with a golden crown holding a tiny "tree of light" (Christmas tree) and bearing the gifts of Jesus to all the good children. His image is much different now - but I plan on telling the girls that he just got old. But I'll work in the presents as symbols of the true gifts Jesus has to offer and liken the joy they have at getting their presents to the joy they feel when they feel the Spirit, etc. That way I can keep my Santa's and the girls can still associate them with the true meaning of Christmas.
I still love that advent calendar of yours and have I made one for myself yet...nope! I love those dutch letters. I went to a cookie exchange and made speculaas since it was on Dec 5. They were pretty tasty. Glad to hear your knee is doing better. Happy shopping.
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