Teaching the Meaning of Christmas to My Kids

The three kids living in our home at this time, like almost everyone, prefer to think about what they're going to receive at Christmas than anything else. As Christian parents, we've tried for years to change the focus to giving and to serving, as opposed to "gimme...gimme." It's hard.

As I considered what to do for advent for the children this year, I immediately discarded the idea of the traditional advent calendar where a child gets a small toy or candy each day. My husband and I talked about what advent really means: Waiting for the Christ Child. A couple of years ago, we had tried giving chocolate eyeball candy each day and talking about waiting for Jesus. It didn't go over very well, and I don't think it taught our daughter anything about Jesus.

So this year, I was really looking for something focused on giving and serving. In serving others, we serve Jesus (Mark 9:35), and that's what I wanted the children to think about this advent season.

I saw an ad for "The Giving Manger," and I took a look at the product. It seemed a little pricey, so I declined. But I kept being drawn back to the concept: A story about serving others, filling a manger with straw in preparation for Jesus' birth. It seemed spot-on with what we wanted, and I finally ordered the set, hoping I wasn't wasting our money.

I read the book to the kids several times between Thanksgiving and December 1st. They liked the book, from the 3 year old to the 11 year old. On December 2nd (I was a day late....), I got out the manger and straw. I told the children that serving others was going to be our way of anticipating the birth of Jesus, the greatest servant of all. I gave them some ideas of what their service could be (helping someone with their chore, cleaning up toys without being told, folding laundry, etc.), and left the manger somewhere they could reach it.

I started the service by doing everyone's chore for two days in a row. The 11-year-old noticed first, with the 5-year-old right behind. They also noticed the straw in the manger bed. I reminded them all that each piece of straw stood for one act of service. Right away, I started noticing little jobs being done without any prompting. The two oldest children got very active about service, trying to outdo each other in helping. The straw loaded up in the manger.

Then I got this note:

My heart melted, of course. What parent's heart wouldn't? But more than that, I saw that the children were developing an understanding of service, of gratitude, of giving. Advent, in the sense of noticing what needs to be done, appreciating who does it, and pitching in willingly, with love and grace.

I have never before written a blog post advocating the purchase of a product, but The Giving Manger is worth every penny! The children have been so active serving each other, our family, and our community that we are running out of straw!

We're getting ready for Jesus' birth!