Talking to Your Kids About Jesus' Birthday
I’m going to be real and raw with you this week…
I often get a lot of backlash for including a few Christian activities in my book The Ultimate Toddler Activity Guide. However, I believe that as a person, wife, mom, blogger, and author I should be genuine to myself and to you. I’m nervous to type these words, (I know I should be proud of who I am, the problem is, that I receive negative responses in the form of 1 star reviews on Amazon, so it stings personally.) but here goes—I am a Christian.
I am in no way trying to force my beliefs on you in any way! I just want to be honest with you about whom I am and why I share what I share. As a Christian, it is my responsibility to reflect God’s love by sharing my gifts with you. It is also my responsibility, as a Christian, to encourage you and build you up. It is also my responsibility to walk alongside you on your journey through motherhood and help lighten your load when possible. It is my job to love you, and not judge you!
I believe the above responsibilities hold true when it comes to parenting too. So, my husband and I choose to share the story of Jesus’ birth with our children especially during the Christmas season. If you choose not to celebrate Christmas in this way, then I support your choice and your right to do what you feel is best for your family. Sincerely, we share so much in common as moms that we shouldn’t feel conflicted because we view one topic differently.
There seems to be the stigma that if we disagree on even one topic then we can no longer be friends and must become enemies. Please join me in rejecting this narrative. We can still support and love one another even though we may be different in various ways. The rest of this email will talk about the religious side of Christmas, so if you are uncomfortable feel free to skip the rest of this email. I will catch you next week—next week’s email will be more lighthearted as we talk about fun Christmas traditions.
If you and your family enjoy celebrating Jesus’ birth during the Christmas season, then please read below for how we talk to our children about Jesus (FREEBIE included).
How to Talk About Jesus During Christmas
Each Christmas season we enjoy counting down to Christmas with an advent calendar. But it’s not just an ordinary advent calendar—it’s a Nativity Advent Calendar. It is the story of the birth of Jesus broken down into small portions to read each day along with a character to color. This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions because my children get so excited to open up the next envelope each night to hear the next part of the story.
If you would like to start your own Nativity Advent Calendar with your children, CLICK HERE to download. I know it is a few days into December, but you can just double up a couple days to catch up.
When you are talking to young children about Jesus or anything really, keep it simple. We like to recall the parts of the birth of Jesus story we have already opened before opening the new character and story for the current day. You might not get questions as your children learn the Christmas story, but if you do, keep the answers short and simple. Use language that your child will understand, and try to relate it back to something they are familiar with.
Here are a few other ideas to help keep your Christmas season focused on Jesus:
1. Buy a play nativity set for your children to play with. We like this one.
2. Create a movie night with popcorn and hot chocolate and watch Star.
3. Find ways to serve others in your community by spreading love. (Ex. Christmas food baskets, donating a new toy to a less fortunate child, invite someone without family to Christmas dinner, leave a gift for the mail person or garbage person)
4. Read Christmas books together about the birth of Jesus.
5. Do Christmas activities together. You can find Christmas activities in The Ultimate Toddler Activity Guide.