Christmas Day

Christmas Day: Celebrating With the Kids

Most people will spend Christmas Eve enjoying a delicious Christmas dinner. Family members may then gather around the tree and sing Christmas carols. Story telling is sometimes part of the activities during Christmas Eve. It is an enjoyable time for adults, but maybe not so much for the children. The kids are restless. They’ve already sent letters to Santa and now it’s time to find out if those Christmas wishes will come true.

On Christmas Eve parents everywhere encourage their kids to get to sleep early so Santa can come and leave their presents. While the children sleep, parents scurry back and forth, leaving presents under the Christmas tree. Christmas day is definitely an exciting and happy event for all.

Christmas Day: A Magical Time for Kids

Most kids enjoy Christmas Day more than Christmas Eve. On Christmas day, the children get to open all their gifts and presents. Some presents are from family members, relatives and friends. The gifts are nice but children always prefer the wonderful and exciting presents brought by Santa Claus. As soon as the children wake up, they rush to look over the presents under the Christmas tree.

Before the Opening Begins…

Children want to open their presents right away. It is hard to keep everything organized and orderly. You can set a tradition before the opening of the presents. Gather the family and say a short thanksgiving prayer to bless all who gave those gifts and presents. It will be hard to keep the children quiet and silent but with a little bit of patience and perseverance, you might be able to instill this as a family tradition.

By now everybody is excited and waiting to start opening the presents. You should ask people to check the presents first and find out if there are greeting cards attached to the present. The gift might be from a family member, relative or friend. You need to know who gave the gift so you can send thank you cards to them.

This may take some additional control because everyone wants to start opening the gifts. You will have to organize and oversee the opening of the gifts to ensure the greeting cards are catalogued properly and not strewn around. You should keep track of the ongoing activities even if you are just as excited and impatient in opening your gifts.

Time to Eat!

After all the presents are opened, it is time for breakfast or brunch. Aside from the Christmas Eve dinner, you can have another feast on Christmas day itself or you can simply enjoy a casserole that will make cooking an easy task. 

The ambiance of Christmas Day is unique. All will be talking about their presents. Children are busy playing with their toys which is a good thing because parents are exhausted from their late night of being Santa.

Christmas is a great time for family bonding. Don't forget to take pictures of a happy and enjoyable time. 

Helping Others During The Holidays

I can remember the Christmas holiday that my mom helped our neighbors across the street from us. They were new to the neighborhood and had openly discussed their financial problems with my mom. The family had young children to care for and was worried how they were going to get through Christmas. Their bills were piling up and things were looking pretty dismal.

My mom suggested that they call some of the local churches that would help with gifts for all the children, they also provide food for the ones who qualify. She also told them to try and put the kids on the Angel tree and wait to see if they get picked from the tree. She told them that Christmas is about making memories that will last with your family. It is not what you get your kids it is the memory that you make with them.

They called around to all of the churches – some gave them food, others helped them with their bills and others helped with gifts and in other ways. The family was able to use a little of the money to actually shop for a gift or two for each of their children.

They were so happy and appreciative that my mom had told them about all of those places that would help them. They even pulled together enough money to get something for her. They came over a couple days before Christmas to give my mom her gift. It was wrapped with a bow and my mom placed it under the tree with all the other presents. It made my mom proud that she helped this family and she invited them to eat Christmas dinner with us, she was thrilled that they accepted.

On Christmas Day the family arrived to eat with us. The house was packed with people everywhere; the mood was festive with Christmas music playing in the background.

This is a Christmas that I will never forget. My mom helped this family get through Christmas just by giving advice to them. Because they listened and took action, they had a good Christmas. It shows you that you do not have to do much to help less fortunate people.

This year I plan on getting the family together and making a big gift basket to send to the churches in the area. It will be helping the less fortunate in an indirect way and making memories with my children in a very direct way – memories that will last a lifetime.