Creating a simple, cozy, and Christ-centered Christmas season🕯️

So welcome to today's video. Today I'm going to be sharing with you guys just a few things that my family does as a family of six to keep Jesus truly at the center of Christmas. And the world pulls us apart in such a huge way around this time where we are just pulled apart in so many different ways. It's the busyness of shopping and it's the busyness of rushing around and what can I acquire next and what can I get this year and I got to get my wish list and all of these things that our minds can be very quickly distracted from what we are supposed to be thinking about. And that is the birth of our Savior. So I'm going to share a few things that we do in our family. So number one is we celebrate the feast day of St. Nicholas. My kiddos know who St. Nicholas is and they know that the secular version of Santa Claus is based off of the true St. Nicholas and it's just a beautiful tradition and that falls on December 6th. And so on December 6th they will get little goodies and things in their shoes because that is the tradition of St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas went around and put little treats and everything in shoes and some people will do stockings but the tradition is shoes. And so that is what we do. We do follow St. Nicholas feast day on December 6th. If you want to go into that you can research the tradition behind the St. Nicholas feast day and it's just a really cool way to still acknowledge the Santa Claus idea but in a traditional Catholic way and a Christian way versus giving into that more worldly outlook on Christmas. So that starts off on December 6th. And then the next thing is the St. Andrew Novena. This novena is so so powerful and that starts on November 30th and it goes all the way till Christmas Eve and it is a prayer that is prayed 15 times each day and we will do this as a whole family. I loved doing this last year with my babies and with my husband and it was just a really cool time to just set that time aside each day to pray with each other and to welcome this baby savior that is coming into the world, right? And so we will do the St. Andrew Novena and then we have the traditional Catholic Advent Wreath. There are four candles on it. Sometimes there will be a candle in the center to light on Christmas Day which I do enjoy doing and there are prayers that go around with that that we will say and then light those candles and those candles are lit every Sunday during the Advent time. And so we will sometimes do the St. Andrew Novena separately from the Advent Wreath or we will do both at the same time while the candles are lit and it's just a very special time, a very holy time, a very intimate time of prayer as a family. And really just kind of brings us back to that moment of what the season is and not to get sucked into consumerism and shopping and all the things that we can easily get sucked into this year. What I'll do is I'll actually put the St. Andrew Novena on the side of the screen here for you to see. It is a beautiful, beautiful prayer. The next thing is having an Advent kids devotional for the kiddos to do. One of them that they did last year was the Mary on the Mantle devotion and that was on the Hallo app. I'm sure it's somewhere else too. But that one was really cool for the kiddos to do. Every day they listened to it during the season of Advent and again, it's just kind of bringing that Christ-centered, Christ-honoring tradition into our children, into our home during this beautiful, beautiful, special time. And then of course, simple and intentional gifts. Not going all out, not going and spending a lot of money, not going and overwhelming our kiddos with gifts to open on Christmas because the act of receiving gifts and having a lot of gifts to open can really, really quickly get us out of that, you know, mindset of honoring Jesus. And so one way that we will do this is we will do very simple gifts. We do, you know, just a few gifts, a few little stockings full of goodies and treats. And then we do a gift for mommy and daddy. And then we do a sibling exchange gift. And this is the next thing I wanted to talk about was focusing on not only receiving but in giving because that's the mindset we're supposed to have as Christians is the way the Magi, the way the wise men brought the gifts to Jesus. The most beautiful thing we could be doing is seeing gifts as a way to honor what the wise men did to Jesus. They brought Jesus gifts. And so if we can kind of focus on that giving mindset, it just truly changes the whole season. And so the most amazing thing that we do, and I mean, I'm hyping this up a little bit, but it really is so special to see your kiddos do this, is to do a sibling exchange. I grew up doing this as a little girl with my siblings, and it was so fun to just open, go in that basket and pull the name of the sibling that I was going to give to that year and then go and shop for that sibling, something that I know that they would want. And so we do that with our kiddos, and it is so special. Around Thanksgiving, they will go and they will pull a name out of a basket and then buy for that person. And yeah, I think that it's beautiful to focus on that giving mindset. So I have mentioned this before in Christmas videos, but I had to mention it again, and that is the giving manger. If you guys haven't heard of the giving manger, I will link it down in the description box. This is such a cool tradition to do with your kids. We started this a few years ago where basically it's just a little wooden manger, and it comes with a pack of straw. And every time the child goes out of their way to do something kind for someone, to do something generous, to do something just a nice thing for someone, they go and they get to put a piece of straw in the giving manger. And if it was done correctly, then there will be a thick bed of hay for baby Jesus to lay down on. So that is something that has been a really beautiful tradition that we have done as well, and my kiddos look forward to it every year. So those are a few things that we do to keep our home intentional, keep our home simple, keep our home Christ-centered. So that our eyes are focused on Jesus. Our eyes are focused on this beautiful Savior that God sent us as a brand new baby. What a gift. So I pray that this video blesses you. I would actually love to know any traditions that you do with your family around this time of year to keep your eyes on what matters. I would love to know. So if any of you guys want to leave that down in the comments below, I'm sure other people would love to see that as well. I will see you in my next video. Until next time, take care guys. God bless. Hey guys, thank you so much for watching this video. If you enjoyed this video and would like to see more videos like this, feel free to subscribe so you can see every time I post a new video. Thank you guys for being here and I'll see you in my next one. God bless.