Traditions

Last night our community group met one last time before the Holidays with the topic of choice being, of course, Christmas. We read some Scriptures about the prophesies of Christ's birth and contemplated Advent and the anticipation the people must of felt for their Savior's birth into the world. All but one family in our group have children and the topic quickly shifted to how we keep Christ the center in the midst of all the added glitz Christmas has assumed. The Foughts had researched some common traditions aimed at keeping Christ centered and shared some of them with the group, while others offered things they do/have done with their families.
Jason and I were just discussing this topic Sunday night as we were finishing up our Christmas shopping and decided on one thing we were going to start...
One of my continuous prayers for Lincoln has been that he will have a compassionate heart for others and an spirit of servitude. Christmas provides such great opportunities to exercise such qualities and teach them to our kids. But not only to our kids, but as a reminder for us adults as well...I pray that I can be remembered as someone who is compassionate and know that this is a daily battle fought between myself and the continual things that aim at distracting. Jason and I have always set a budget for ourselves and what we would buy everyone and each other at the Holidays. We decided next year to, not expand that budget, but start taking a certain amount from each of our allowances (including Lincoln's) by which we could use to buy gifts/meals/anything needed for a family in need. Jason has shared some stories with me about how families did this for his family when he was a child when things were extremely tight. He said some of his greatest memories stem form these times when others were so generous and Christ-like.
I'll be honest, sometimes I struggle with the whole gift-giving aspect of Christmas...it's Jesus' birthday - shouldn't we be giving Him gifts? I've always had a hard time understanding why we all buy each other gifts at Christmas. Don't worry - I'm not robbing my child of this! But I do long to find a way to help Lincoln (and myself) understand and keep an appropriate perspective on this truly, most wonderful time of the year.
Which leads to a tradition another couple shared - giving Jesus gifts. They talked about a tradition where each family member decides on something they will give back to Jesus...maybe a commitment to more time with Him, or doing an act of servitude, for example. Then as each member shares on Christmas morning their gift to Jesus, the family can keep each other accountable to those gifts. I personally loved this one and think it is a good way to get the whole family involved!
Other traditions shared were having a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake, and then their was one about Advent that I think we might try and do next year:
For each of the 4 Sundays before Christmas, light the appropriate Advent candle and prepare a dinner to share by only the light of the candles, while reading appropriate Advent readings and scripture. Likewise, the first of these would be eaten by one light, next by two, and so on, before the celebration of Christ's birth, symbolizing no more darkness and full light. I think it is a fantastic way to re-center each week the true meaning of Christmas and get a small glimpse into the anticipation the people must have felt long ago.

Those are a few of the traditions that stuck out to me and seemed like something we might try to incorporate. I'm just curious...what are some of your traditions and how do you keep alive the true meaning of Christmas?