Pointing to Christ in your Holiday Traditions

Traditions. There are so many around the Christmas season!

Whether your holiday traditions are passed down to you from family members or you have created your own, there are probably some that are “musts” for the holiday season. Even if you just participate in the ones that seem to be everywhere this time of year, there are ways to point your child back to Christ in holiday traditions as he or she does them with you.

Traditions are helpful

The Bible (especially the Old Testament) has a rich history of traditions that God gave to His people as a way for them to remember something important about Himself. A particular day or season gave His people a chance to recall a truth about God, and often engage in a practice or experience of some kind that made this truth more real or tangible. These moments were important opportunities for God’s people to have their understanding of Him deepen, and the experiences God prescribed often were accessible to the whole community, from the youngest to the oldest members. Adults were even told simple ways to explain the truth behind the tradition to the children while they were participating in a particular ritual or tradition together.

A variety of traditions

Though church history gives a beautiful tapestry of Christmas traditions to choose from, there are a lot of options when it comes to what to pick. As believers in Christ we have the freedom to choose what traditions we want to use in this practice of engaging deeper with the spiritual truths of the Christmas story. And that is really fun!

Kids will need your help to see the connection

Because children usually are going to interpret something literally, they will need you to help them translate the experience to what it means in a deeper sense. It doesn’t need to be elaborate or complicated, and you don’t need to force the issue – even an offhand remark to a child will give them something to think about and ask more if they are curious. Don’t feel like you have to stick to any particular script if you and your child are doing an activity that has a deeper meaning to you. Just say something short about why it matters to you.

An example of an offhand comment would be, “It’s so fun that we give presents at Christmas time. When God sent Jesus to earth as a baby, it was like a big giant present to the whole world!”

For a longer example, if you are doing a Christmas activity where you light candles, you will be able to deepen their understanding of this by explaining briefly, “Hey kids, see this candle? It makes light. Jesus said He is the light of the world. This means he is our hope. The world we live in would be a dark place without Jesus and the hope He gives us. Christmas is when we celebrate Jesus’ coming to our world. We can remember to thank Jesus when we see a candle lighting a dark place.”

A challenge

Think about a tradition you do in your family or church. How can you translate the experience of the tradition to kids so they can see the meaning behind it? Is there a way you’ve communicated the truth behind a tradition to kids that you want to share? Leave it in the comments!