At Christmas we celebrate Christ

This is a quote from our youth pastor talking to his children. "On your birthday we celebrate you, at Christmas we celebrate Christ."

So how do you celebrate Christ at Christmas?

We have an Advent tree. We do the ABC's of Advent. A is for angel . . . we have one for each night as we count down to Christmas. I also have the ornaments to use it as a Jesse Tree. That's when we discuss Biblical history, counting down the days until the birth of Christ. It was originally created as a Jesse Tree, but the DC were so little at the time that they really didn't understand it. I was given the ABC's of Christmas that year. So we've done the ABC's ever since. But now, all four have learned their ABC's and since the oldest are teenagers they're more than old enough to trace the Biblical history of the Messiah.

I also decorate with nativities. Of course we have the standard Christmas tree, and lights, and stockings . . . but I also have 15 nativities (give or take a few). Two of them are specifically for the DC. They get to play with the figures and act out the Christmas story.

And we read. We have three advent stories that we alternate reading every year. This year we're reading Jotham's Journey by Arnold Ytreeide. We've read Bartholomew's Passage and Tabitha's Travels (both also by Arnold Ytreeide) on alternating years. The characters and their stories all interconnect which adds interesting depth to the stories.

For gifts the DC each get three gifts, to represent the three gifts from the wise men. They also get one gift from Santa and a stuffed stocking. I like seeing Santa's reaction each year as my DC sit on his lap and politely ask for one thing. He normally looks at them "Is that all?"

I know there's a lot more we could do. Especially with the social aspect and reaching out to others. So what do you do to celebrate Christ?