A Great Time of Year to Read Living Books about Thanksgiving

If you are on track to finish your major preparation for Christmas by Thanksgiving, you’ll be celebrating perhaps All-Saints Day this week (we don’t celebrate Halloween). It’s a great time to read about America’s 1st Thanksgiving! Go to my post for the Best Character-Building Books for Kids to find recommendations! While there choose children’s books for Christmas and Birthday gifts to put on your Gift Shelf! 

Children’s books also make wonderful Baby Shower Gifts. Usually the child gets so many clothes, but the books will be used and enjoyed for years to come by all the children in the home. I recently gave a mom who had just had a baby the book, “Where Did the Baby Go?” It’s a Golden Book, and an old one–I love old books! The two older children (four and six-years-old) in the family asked me to read it right there on the spot, which of course I was thrilled to do! If the baby being showered has older siblings, I find this a way to help them enjoy the arrival of their new baby brother or sister. 

Share the Gospel without saying a word

I don’t like to see store displays of Christmas decorations and hear Christmas music playing months ahead, though you might think I would, based on this series. I’m all for enjoying each holiday, each celebration, and not rushing them. But, preparing ahead, scheduling, and being ready, allows you to truly celebrate Advent and Christmas. So, while you’re reading great books about Thanksgiving, and keeping your Thankful Thoughts Journal, you can be preparing for Advent. You can have your kids get God’s Word in their hearts and memorize Luke 2 this Christmas. They’ll be able to share with the grandparents and extended family which is also a way to share the gospel at Christmas! 

There are many ways we can share Christ without speaking a word. One is with the decorations in our home. Christmas decorations can loudly proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God come to earth, and that you believe in Him. It doesn’t have to hit people over the head. The message of Christ-mas should not be confusing or mixed with other messages. Do your decorations cause someone to ask you about the hope you have within you? (1 Peter 3:15–“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”)

Use Your Christmas Letter to Share the Gospel

Another way to be light in this dark world, is by writing a Christmas letter (not a brag-letter) to keep in touch with all those relatives who never come in contact with anyone who is a believer, or hear the Name of Jesus spoken, except as a curse word, all year long. People don’t get real mail, from real people anymore. They may receive Christmas cards, but maybe they don’t even get those! Your letter is a real person reaching out to them in this lonely world. We have a lot of relatives. Most are unsaved. Whenever I’m tempted to quit sending my Christmas letter, one of them will tell me again how much they enjoy getting our letter each year. 

Do your regular family activities proclaim that you are believers in Jesus? You may be surprised what will impact others. God can use the tiniest thing. Maybe just that you are normal! You are an anomaly. We are just what I would call a normal family who love the LORD, but our marriage has lasted, our children still love to be with each other and with us. I try to share the deep gratitude I have for what God has given and allowed (not in a fake way), the good and bad, through the year, and we’re really normal (warts and all!) but there’s still joy and love present in our home and life and family. Nothing special.

This is an 8-week Schedule For a Calm, Christ-Centered Christmas. I have given you ideas for what to do each week in order to be done with your major Christmas preparation by Thanksgiving. If you are beginning when this post is published, you still have time to complete the 8 weeks by Christmas! Plan to Be Ready to Celebrate Christ this Christ-mas! Here is the Schedule for Week 6. Read all the posts in the Series listed below!

Week 6 Schedule: What to Do This Week for a Calm, Christ-Centered Christmas (You’re nearing the end!)

• Celebrate All-Saints Day (Read about the origins of this holiday–we don’t celebrate Halloween:)
• Spend time as a family: Have your kids help decorate, wrap, and shop; Read great living books about America’s 1st Thanksgiving.
• Plan how you will celebrate Advent, and look through your supplies, replenishing candles, purchasing a book, or whatever you need to do to be ready.
• Finish writing your Christmas Letter and try to include an evangelistic message.
•  Print out a sample of your Christmas Letter on plain paper to see if it will fit and prints well within the boundaries of your Christmas stationery.
• Begin stuffing your Christmas cards, if there will be no letter.
• Print out the Christmas letter, if you have written one.
• Write a personal note in the cards or letters that need one
• Consider beginning your holiday baking and freezing to frost, or finish later.
• Emphasize thankfulness in your family during the month of November. (Prepare by getting “A Thankful Thoughts Journal” Get one and print a copy for each family member! They also make great gifts.)
• Send a note of thanks with a page of copy work (a Bible verse that your children copied) from the Journal or a favorite verse to someone you know who’s sick, or to an elderly neighbor, grandparents, or someone who you know is probably especially lonely at this time.
• Read great living books (this counts as school!) Here are Thanksgiving Book Recommendations!

Sharing the Gospel will cost you time and money

I’ll put it on MY list to write a template for the Christmas letter we send, and though you don’t have to write it that way, it may be a boost for you to write your own! Ours is typed, copied on our printer, and on Christmas stationery. We send it along with a Christmas card that clearly spells out that Jesus Christ’s birth is the reason we’re celebrating, has Scripture in it, and I include a new photo each year of our whole family (including grown children, if possible). 

Does this cost me something? Yes. In both time and money. Does being a disciple of Jesus Christ cost something? Of course. Did it cost Jesus anything to come to earth to save you? Sending a Christmas Letter, Christmas card, and picture is something we have had to budget for and save for, but it’s part of going into all the world and sharing the gospel  that Jesus called us to do. For me, it’s essential work. Eternal work. You may do something else to share the gospel, but writing is a gift God has given me, and this is my mission field. I recommend you use this time when hearts are especially receptive, to share the gospel, however you can.

“Share the gospel at Christmastime, whether by writing a Christmas letter, handing out tracts, bringing a candy cane to stores with a copy of the Candy Cane Story, or however you want. Writing a Christmas Letter is one way to use my gifts, and share the gospel with my part of the world.”

Wendy Gunn

Thanking people through letters, acts of kindness, and spoken words (in your family, first of all), is the beginning of Christmas:) Practice gratitude and your hearts will be ready to worship the King, Jesus Christ, the Baby Son of God Who the Heavenly Father sent into the world that whosoever believeth on Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (“For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”)

Ideas for What Special activities You can Do as a Family to give of yourselves This Christmas:

You will have time, if you get things done early, to do things like:

• Fill a Christmas box for a needy child
• Give a gift to the child of someone in prison
• Go and visit an elderly grandparent, aunt, uncle, or neighbor to help them prepare for their Christmas, or just help them in general
• Make a gift to take to your neighbors–read this post for a simple way to make and give a pie-in-a-jar
• Share the true meaning of Christmas with others with a printed out message attached to your neighbors’ gifts
• Share the gospel in stores and restaurants through gospel tracts and the Candy-cane story (with a candy-cane gift tied on with ribbon)
• Celebrate Advent meaningfully

What will you do with the extra time you have this Christmas, because you have a Schedule for a Calm, Christ-Centered Christmas? You don’t have to do ANYTHING, but worship Christ more!

God perfectly planned and shared Jesus with us

This is Week 6 of the Series on “How to Schedule For a Calm, Christ-Centered Christmas.”   When you plan and schedule, each little thing that gets finished ahead of time helps!  God is your Perfect Example. Be disciplined, and have a plan–He is the Perfect Planner–but obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus did when He lived on earth. Your family is unique. God has a purpose for you. Extra time, calm emotions, peace–is what preparation will give you–what will you do with the extra time? Let the Spirit lead you.

One thing you should be sure to do is to be still and worship the LORD. Let’s praise God for sending His Son to live on this earth. God is the Perfect Planner, and planned from the beginning of time to give us Jesus. He paid the Ultimate sacrifice and died for our sins, rose again and sits at the right hand of God now, interceding for us. So much to thank Him for! This plan was set in place from the beginning of time. God is our Ultimate Example of One Who plans ahead, plans well, and faithfully brings His Plans to pass. Let’s plan to focus on Jesus Christ’s birth, and honor Him this Christmas!

Click on the links below to Read all the Posts in “How to Schedule for a Calm, Christ-centered Christmas” (8-Weeks’ Schedule):

• Week 1:  How to Schedule an Amazingly Calm, Christ-Centered Christmas
• Week 2: 12 Steps for a Calm, Christ-centered Christmas, Week 2
• Week 3: How to Get Organized for the Holidays
• Week 4: How to Actually Have a Wonderful Christ-Centered Christmas
• Week 5: How to Keep Christmas the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
• Week 6: How to Be an At-Home Missionary this Christmas
• Week 7:  How to Get Organized for a More Meaningful Christmas