Ready to Think About Santa Yet?

Ok, so there are 2 weird things about this post right off the bat:

1.  I’m referring to a Christmas character and it’s only October for crying out loud

2.   I’m talking about Santa – and this blog is supposed to be about the CHURCH calendar

Now here are the 2 reasons for why I’m being so weird:

1. In order to alter our thinking, and possibly traditions, about this key figure, we might need to start planning early

2. Santa, like it or not, is part of our culture and we need to figure out what we’re going to do with him in our families!

There are probably at least 3 options for how families can deal with Santa Claus:

(I’ll switch to letters now since the numbers are getting a little old)

A.      They can try to completely ignore him, focusing only on Jesus and the true Christmas story

B.      They can go along with the normal culture, embracing the jolly ol’ fellow, encouraging all the mall visits and naughty-and-nice lists

-or-

C.   They can proactively find a way to incorporate the legend of Santa into their family life, while clearly delineating his fictional aspects from the factual truths of Jesus.

Perhaps you can see where I am going with this.  :)

Years ago, when we first read Martha Zimmerman’s book about celebrating the Christian year (see sidebar for details), we were introduced to the concept of celebrating St. Nicholas Day.  I would venture to say that this has become one of our most favorite family traditions of all.  Not only does it cleanly and happily take care of the Santa/Jesus delineation, but it also has given us a whole new party day!

Our kids love St. Nicholas Day because it involves 4 things:  all things Santa, a party with friends, secretive giving missions, and STOCKINGS.  And truthfully, one of the things we love about giving stockings on St. Nicholas Day is that it spreads out the gift-giving a little bit.  The kids can really enjoy the things in their stockings, as opposed to them just being the “warm-up” to the real deal on Christmas morning.

(In our house we give stockings on St. Nicholas Day, a couple gifts on Christmas morning, and one more on Epiphany…. so it’s a full month of gifts all spread out.)

But the real best part for us is that on December 7, after St. Nick has been fully celebrated and honored, we put away all things to do with Santa, and the rest of the season is now freed up to focus on the true star, Jesus.  There seems to be a lot less confusion that way.

So, I write this now, to put a little niggle in your brain in case you, too, would like to celebrate Santa in this way.  As it turns out the man behind the legend, St. Nicholas, was quite a fascinating man and definitely worthy of emulation in some ways.  Perhaps this is the year you’d like to celebrate the true story as a family.

I know switching the giving-of-the-stockings date can throw people off, so put it on your calendars now- December 6 is St. Nicholas Day.  In the next couple of weeks I’ll post a little more detail about who St. Nicholas was, as well as some suggestions for how to specifically celebrate the day.

In the meantime, start gathering those stocking stuffers!

Pentecost: A good day for cake!

After all of the intensity and solemnity of the long Lenten season, the whirlwind of Holy Week, and the celebratory festivities of Easter, I was happy to have these last several weeks of regular living.  There are 50 days between Easter and Pentecost, a mixture of the ordinary and the extraordinary.

I’ve wondered what Jesus did with His disciples and followers for those weeks after His resurrection – we don’t get a lot of detail from that time.  We know a few extraordinary things that happened – including His Ascension! – but perhaps many of the days were filled with the regular things of life.   

For the Israelites in the Old Testament, these weeks were sandwiched between two major holy days, one that commemorated the beginning of the grain harvest, which took place during Passover, and one that celebrated the end of it, which was Pentecost. (See this article for more detail) 

When Jesus came, he brought a whole new dimension – THE dimension – to those holy days.  He offered up Himself as the Firstfruits, the Passover Lamb, and the final sacrifice during the first set of Holy Days, and then sent His Spirit to start the first true church during the second.

Traditionally, it is believed that the Ten Commandments were given on Mt. Sinai on the day of Pentecost.  What amazing symmetry that presents:  On the same day of the year that the Law was given, which could not save, the Spirit of the Risen Christ was given, who totally does!

We now celebrate Pentecost as the day of the giving of the Holy Spirit to believers, and therefore the birthday of the Church.   So it’s a big deal - -and worthy of a big celebration!  As Peter J. Leithart reminds us, we should be a noisy and joyous group when we have the Spirit living in us!

As we’ve mentioned before, we love the fact that Christians have more reasons to celebrate, and we love to do this as much as we can! So here is another day to make a cake, put up some balloons, open the Scriptures and remind yourselves and your children about the crazy and wonderful things that happened years ago.

Here are some suggestions:

• Read the account of giving of the Spirit in Acts 2.  Other passages to read/think about are Galatians 5:22-26, and 1 Corinthians 12.  Praise the Advocate, the Spirit!

• Talk about how the events in Acts 2 contrast with what happened at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11.

• Decorate the table with red petals. 

• Cook something spicy to represent the tongues of fire.

• Serve fruit salad and talk about the fruit of the Spirit. (Gal 5:22-23)

• Bake a birthday cake and sing “Happy Birthday” to the Church!  Light candles and talk about the flames of fire that were above the disciples’ heads.

or

• Make cupcakes with strawberries as tongues of fire.

One last note:  The Western church and the Eastern church (Orthodox) often do not have coinciding holidays.  I never knew this until we spent some time in Eastern Europe and realized we got to celebrate each of the holidays for 2 weeks in a row (which was pretty cool!).  But this year, 2014, the holidays DO line up, so all Christians everywhere will be observing Pentecost tomorrow.  Happy birthday to the WHOLE church!

Resurrection Day traditions

Some ideas for celebrating that HE IS RISEN!!

Music-to-Wake-the-Family-By

"Christ The Lord Is Risen Today" -- modern version and traditional version

"The Easter Song" by Glad A Capella group

"Beautiful Rescuer" -- by David Walker (thanks, Donna H.!)


Symbolic "Sweets"

1. Easter Story Cookies:  I have loved going through the process of making these cookies with my kids (and nieces and nephews), as each step has something meaningful attached.  The actual cookies themselves were less than impressive, though.  :)  (Maybe we did it wrong?  Meringue is a tricky thing!)

2. Resurrection Rolls:  These are easy, tasty, and have a nice "wow" factor for kids!

3. Empty Tomb Cake:  This could be made in a variety of ways, of course.  It's nice to see an Easter dessert that's not all about bunnies and chicks once in awhile!


Afternoon Activities

If you want to give the kids something to do while you're preparing dinner (or resting after preparing dinner!), here are a few ideas:

1. Egg hunt:  If you haven't already done a neighborhood egg hunt, now might be a good time for whoever is around.  Using "Resurrection Eggs" makes it especially meaningful and useful for teaching.

2. Lego activity:  Tell the kids to make something like this!

3. Coloring pages:  There are some good ones on this site.

Remembering

My dear friend Lisa, celebrated a Seder last night. She and her beautiful family walked very tangibly into the act of remembering. These are her words...

Tonight, we remembered.

We remembered the first Passover.

We heard it, saw it, smelled it, felt and tasted it.

I have learned that is what the seder is all about.

We leaned on pillows to remember we are not slaves but are eating at our leisure . . . free.

We said the traditional blessings, (in English of course) and retold the story of the deliverance from Egypt.

We dipped the bitter herbs in salt water to remember the bitterness and tears of slavery.

We ate a horseradish and chopped apple matzah sandwich  while thinking about the cruelty of 

slavery and the hope of freedom.

We spilled drops of wine/grape juice from our glasses for each plague-emptying some of the joy from our 

glasses.  (Sad for even our enemies who suffered)

We searched for the broken matzah.

We experienced it with all our senses.  

So we can remember it again . . . and again.

Because we have been set free. . . and I need help remembering..

Good Friday Traditions

Observing this Holy Day, both "Good" and somber can draw us ever closer to Christ, reminding us of the great price He paid for us.  Here we have compiled a few suggestions of things we can do as we contemplate and worship:

• In Celebrating the Christian Year, Martha Zimmerman suggests helping the whole family be mindful of the significance of the day by keeping the home completely dark. (The "Light of the World" left this earth for the 3 days.) Keeping the curtains closed and even draping cloth over lights will serve as a good reminder.

• She also suggests placing a 3x5 card at each family member's place at the dinner table, with a person written on it, such as "Mary" or "Pilate" or "a religious person."  Spend time sharing what you think each person's reactions would have been that first Good Friday.

• Another idea would be to keep the home (or wherever you are) completely quiet from 12 pm - 3 pm, turning off all electronics and using the time for focused prayer and reflections.

• Many churches offer services during the day or in the evening, and there is also an online broadcast opportunity this year from 6 pm until midnight through The Secret Church.  (This does cost money and requires registration.)

• If you're looking for a certain, unique food to make, one traditional ones is Hot Cross Buns.  See here for a recipe that I have used and like.  Or, you could try "crown of thorn pancakes," such as these.

• For the younger kids in the home, here is a list of cross-focused crafts they might enjoy.

• On Good Friday, we will come to breakfast to find a black stone in front of each place. The size good for sticking in a pocket and holding on and off through out the next two days. Its a simple reminder of the waiting in darkness. Then, on Easter Sunday, each person will awake to find a white stone and we will read the beautiful verse from Revelation 2:17 "I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it". These stone ideas also came from Ann Voskamp and they've been very meaningful. 

• This Good Friday, we will plant another round of goodness into the large garden we share with dear friends/neighbors. What beautiful symbolism. We will also gather around together to pray blessing over all that we've planted. 

6 Holy Week Traditions (other than coloring eggs)

Coloring eggs is nice and all, but there is so much more that you can do on this most Holy of weeks!  Such as...


1. Light candles.  My friend Jamie shared this with us recently:

Thought I would share our Easter tradition. I read it in a book by Noel Piper years ago and I love it. The boys even like it.  Tonight (Palm Sunday) we will light all six candles and read about Jesus's triumphal entry. Each night this week, we will light one less candle and read more if the passion week story until Friday night when we will light only one candle and read of Christ's death and blow out the last candle. Saturday, we don't light any candles or read. BUT Sunday, we light them all and read of Christ's resurrection!


2. Read a short reflection each night from a devotional book.  Our favorite this year is this one by John Piper -- and it's a FREE download.  



3. Have a foot-washing ceremony with your family or friends



4. Celebrate a Christian Passover/Seder: So much symbolism can be found in the Jewish tradition of the Passover meal.  

Here are a few links to inspire you:

A simple description of the meal
Longer description and more background
A 45-minute video by Jews for Jesus
From Ann Voskamp:  "Why A Christian Family May Celebrate Passover"  



5. Consider fasting from something consumeristic -- like electricity, as this family has done. 



6. Make a crown of thorns out of salt dough, play-dough, or even palm branches.




Stay tuned for ideas on how to observe Good Friday soon...

However you choose to mark this week, may it be a time of pondering, remembering, and worship as we draw closer and closer to the Main Event:  Resurrection Day!

BB King and the Crown of Thorns

Welcome to Holy Week!

Maybe like me, the start of Holy Week snuck up. I confess, this 46 day period of Lent felt like it was moving slower than molasses some days. I felt it especially, when I wanted something I had given up and then I'd count to find I had 44 more days to go without. Then I'd ask myself why I decided to do this whole thing anyway. I'd like to say I took every one of those moments of longing, to stop and pray, but that would be less than honest. Sometimes it felt more like a cat fight.

But, here we are. Less than a week away from the biggest celebration in the Christian calendar! We will move through this week with a mix of somber awareness and anticipation. And like Amy mentioned in her last post, hope. That's the best part.

Several years ago, I saw an idea from Ann Voskamp's blog www.aholyexperience.com and we started the practice at our house. We have a wreath and tea stained tooth picks in a bowl beside. During Holy Week, we pay particular attention to our need to confess and each time we do, we stick a toothpick into the wreath. The first year we did this, I was overwhelmed at how quickly this simple wreath turn into a crown of thorns. (I realized that is why the suggestion is to pull this out just for Holy Week and not the whole season of Lent.) This is a tangible reminder that our sin, my sin, nailed Jesus to the cross. As BB King so beautifully sings in the song "When Love Comes to Town" with U2 "I was there when they crucified my Lord, I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword, I threw the dice when they pierced his side, but I've seen love conquer the great divide, when love comes to town..."

This tradition may seem a little morose, but there is a place for that. This week, as we anticipate the celebration to come, it's worth remembering the cost.

Our pastor used this verse in his benediction this morning and it's now on the giant chalkboard in our kitchen for all of us to remember. What a perfect verse for this week. 

Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit".