Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Christmas in the Eyes of a 2 Year Old

The first two Christmases with my daughter I can't say that I worried much about sharing the true meaning of Christmas with her beyond what she would naturally absorb from our goings on.  My husband and I of course read her stories about the birth of Christ but beyond that, we didn't do much to make the reality of Christmas come alive.  This year however, I feel I owe more to my bright 2 year old.

I've tried to take each moment I can to talk about real things and pretend things, and how Jesus is real and how he was a real baby once.  I'm not sure how much is grasped but I so desire these words to be etched on her heart. It is of course hard to compete with the anticipation of presents, but I'm trying to instill the true reason why we celebrate little by little each day.

I've been trying to tell Ivy the Christmas story in little bits and pieces.  The most enjoyable way to do this for us is to let Ivy play the part of the animals involved. Thank goodness, there are a lot of animals involved in the Christmas story.  In addition we're also preparing for our Christmas program at church.  She and two other toddlers are going to be little lambs and before the "real" program starts they are going to help tell the story of the shepherds.  The kids' "line" is in blue.  I've been telling this story to Ivy in prepartation and she has a lot of fun with it. 

"One starry night there were shepherds watching sheep on a hillside.  The shepherds were laughing and telling jokes, while all their sheep said Baa. It was like any other night, the shepherds were getting ready for bed while their sheep said Baa.  Then all of a sudden with a great light angels appeared in the sky, the shepherds were afraid. And the sheep said, Baa.  The angels told the shepherds that there was a baby born  who was King of All. The shepherds were amazed. And the sheep said, Baa.  The angels told the shepherds they would find the baby lying in a manger. The shepherds ran off to find the baby.  And the Sheep said BAAA!"

I found a fabulous blog post at the Time Warp Wife this morning when I was going through the blogs I follow.  I encourage you to check out this post, Darlene lays out some great ideas for sharing Christmas with children.  I can't wait to share them with my kids.

I read all my comments, and would love to hear any ideas from other mom's about how they share the true meaning of Christmas with their kids.

Many Christmas Blessings!

3 comments:

  1. So cute!! I'm glad that you sent me the link. Your baby is adorable.

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  2. Do you know the hymn "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God"? I think of it when I talk with my son (almost 6) about the birth of Jesus: He was the most special baby ever born, but every new baby brings hope to the world with all the potential of what he or she might choose to do. Any one of us can choose to be like Jesus or Santa Claus to others. The true meaning of Christmas is recapturing that determination to spread love, hope, joy, and God's Word throughout the world.

    I also remind him frequently of the scripture, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." We talk about how people in olden times didn't have electric lights, so winter was a scary time because it was so dark and felt like the warm days might never come back. That is why we celebrate the new hope that Jesus brought to the world at the time of year when the days first start getting longer again. That is why we use so many lights in Christmas decorating. When we see twinkly lights in the darkness, remember the Light.

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