12 Days of Christmas, Day #5: Christ-Centered Christmas Ideas

Hey y’all!  Happy Sunday and welcome back to Day #5 of the 12 Days of Christmas tour!

I thought it would be fitting for a Sunday to have today’s theme be focused on Christ-centered ways to celebrate Christmas.

I know how easy it is to get swept up into the magic of the season with shopping, parties, gift-giving, and all the festivities. And I love every single bit of it.

But I never want that to be at the expense of forgetting that this holiday is celebrating the birth of Jesus. His coming to earth as a baby who would one day save humanity by laying down His life is the greatest gift we could ever receive. And I would never want that to be overshadowed by all of the other good stuff.

Here are a few ways you can keep Christ central this Christmas.

Bible Studies

Christmas is a great time to focus on the story of Christmas in the Bible and really dig into all the nuances of the story. If you’re looking for some good, free Bible studies, here are 20+ different FREE PRINTABLE Bible studies you can download.

I also love using the apps YouVersion and First5, which also have some great advent Bible studies.

Along the lines of a Bible study, but a little different, I LOVE listening to worship Christmas music. My favorite Pandora station for this is Hillsong (Holiday) Radio. It’s the best to keep your eyes on Jesus as you’re going about your day!

Jesse Tree

While I love doing Advent readings (check out yesterday’s tour on Day #4 for all the advent things, including Bible readings!), I also love to do the Jesse Tree with my kids also. The Jesse Tree starts with the Creation story and traces the Old Testament narrative up to birth of Christ. 

It provides excellent context for the Christmas story.

A few years ago, I found these beautiful ornaments that I used with watercolor paint and this reading guide you can use to go with it. (I cannot find the source of where I got these ornaments & reading guide – if you know the source, I would love to give credit and link to the original!)

Here is another full set of Jesse Tree ornaments that you can either print in color or color yourself – both options, along with a corresponding reading guide.

A mom I came across in a Facebook group, Jessica Pritchett, also created her own Jesse Tree coloring ornaments and corresponding readings and has allowed me to share it with you! Thank you, Jessica!

The King is Coming is another Jesse tree type activity using blocks, very similar to an advent calendar. This in one you need to purchase, but it’s another great option.

 

Names of Jesus

Going through the names of Jesus is another great way to study through the Christmas story. You can even do an entire Bible study on the names of Jesus, like this one (it’s free!)!

When I first did this, I even bought these Names of Jesus Christmas ornaments (Amazon has lots of styles) and dedicated an entire Christmas tree to focus on that! 

It’s another great way to keep the focus on Christ this season.

Christ-Centered Gift-Giving

One of my very first projects on this blog was a Nativity Trail Mix I created. It tells the Christmas story using various ingredients in the trail mix.

This year, I updated the tags and you can still get them for free, here on the blog! If you’re already a subscriber, they are in the free library!

 

This simple gift is an easy way to share Jesus at Christmas time with neighbors, coworkers, teachers, friends – any and everyone!

I also love to participate projects by Compassion International or World Vision, where you can buy various items to help villages in poverty – such as a chicken, a goat, and lots of other things. It’s a great way to get the kids involved and move the focus from themselves and their Christmas lists and onto others.

It has passed for this year, but Operation Christmas Child is also another fantastic ministry that delivers Christmas gift boxes to kids in need and give them the opportunity to hear about Jesus. Put it on your calendar for next year!

We also love to look around our community for Angel Tree gifts we can purchase for children who have a parent that is incarcerated.

Nursing homes often have trees where you can take a tag and buy a gift for a resident. Your local Facebook pages are the best bet to find out about places where you can give gifts to others!

Acts of Kindness

I think one of the best way to keep Christ central is to focus on giving & serving others. It doesn’t have to cost a lot – it could be singing Christmas carols at a nursing home or volunteering time or making crafts to give out or other Acts of Kindness.

Besides this advent calendar that I shared yesterday with a whole calendar dedicated to Acts of Kindness, this activity also has simple Acts of Kindness kids can do! 

To make things easy, here is the December Acts of Kindness calendar & activity cards isolated into one easy PDF, no email address required – just download!

 

Host a Neighborhood Christmas Drop-In

We did this one year and it really helped us connect with our neighbors that we don’t get to interact with much on a day-to-day basis.

We set up our driveway with a firepit and marshmallows, hot cocoa, and cookies. We made invitations, put them in our neighbors’ mailboxes, and invited them to come by. 

We set a 2-hour window so it wasn’t too awkward for anyone, and a drop-in allows people to come and go and stay for as long as it’s comfortable, with no obligation to a long time period.

I also made little gifts to give them (it might have been the Nativity Trail Mix! Or maybe the Christmas Stovetop Potpourri!) to thank them for coming by.

It’s a very low-risk way to reach out to neighbors, to begin friendships where you can share God’s love with them and get to know them.

Christmas is a great time to help our kids look out and up instead of focusing on themselves. Christmas is about giving – God GAVE His Son to us to show His love. We show our love for Him by giving to other.

I hope you found some ideas you can use to keep the focus on Jesus and use Christmas as an opportunity to show His love to others.

Thank you for being here! I’ll see you tomorrow for Day #6!

What are your favorite ways to keep Jesus central as you’re celebrating Christmas? I’d love to hear them! Leave a comment below or feel free to shoot me an email!

ICYMI:

Day #1: Cozy Cottage Homemade Christmas Crafts & Decor

Day #2: Bloggers’ Best Holiday Home Tours

Day #3: Christmas Porch Crafts & Decor

Day #4: Celebrating Advent