A Christmas Tradition to Bring Christ Into Your Christmas
One of our favorite Christmas Traditions is the Jesus Stocking. It is a wonderful way for a family to honor Christ on Christmas Eve or any other time during the year. The white stocking is a timeless way to remember our Savior this Christmas season.
I love Christmas Traditions. I love the anticipation, the excitement, the feelings of delight and wonder. I love discovering what other people’s Christmas traditions are and seeing if they will fit into my family’s traditions.
As I get older the more grateful I am to my Savior who’s birth we celebrate. As a mom I wanted to find a way for my family to have Christmas traditions that would bring them closer to Christ during the Christmas season.
Sometimes, when they were young, my kids would ask what gift we were going to give Baby Jesus because it was His birthday. I would usually laugh and pass it off as little kids who want one more gift or one more piece of cake. But as I thought about it, it seemed only fair that Christ should get some gifts for Christmas too. But what would I give Christ? What could my children give Christ. I don’t think He wants legos or a new phone. What is it that Christ wants for Christmas? When we look at the scriptures we find the answer.
And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
Traditionally, gifts are a sacrifice. We sacrifice our time and resources to make or obtain the gift. Only Christ asks us to sacrifice our heart. How do we sacrifice our heart? Not many of us can give up our heart all at once but we can little by little and that is where the Jesus Stocking tradition comes in.
One year I heard about someone who put up a white stocking for Christ. The tradition is that every year each family member will write down a sacrifice or gift they will give to Christ that Christmas. A little way that they can give their heart to Christ. Then they place their gift in the stocking and during the year they would strive to accomplish their gift.
I love this idea. Soon after hearing about it I found a simple white stocking and put it up on the mantel with the rest of our families’ stockings. The stocking became a daily reminder of who’s birth we are celebrating throughout the season. And a tradition that we celebrate on Christmas Eve.
On Christmas Eve we gather around as a family and pass out our “gifts” to Christ from last year. It is fun to see what everyone has written. I remember we had one child who gave Christ the gift of being potty trained, and that gift was repeatedly given by that child for several years. Some of my children have given the gift of being more grateful, reading their scriptures more often, praying daily etc. Something that they felt was a gift that Christ would like them to give Him. I love to look back and see how I have changed and how my heart has come a little closer to Christ each year because of my gifts to Him.
After several years of doing this I was talking to my cousin. He had been struggling with some pretty hard trials and was wondering where the Lord was during these trials. Then one day he happened to look back in his Journal to the year before and the struggles that he had been facing. The previous challenges he had were no harder or easier than his current ones but the previous ones had been worked out. They were no longer heavy and seemingly insurmountable. He was able to look back and see how the Lord had been with him throughout these challenges now that they were over or at least he had grown to better handle them. It gave him hope that what he was going through now was being handled by the Lord and that in a year his perspective would be very different. It increased his faith and his gratitude.
I have also incorporated this into our Jesus Stocking. Now not only do we write down our gift to Christ but we write down a struggle or challenge that we want help with from Christ. As we look back a year later we are full of gratitude to see how the Lord helped us through it. As our gratitude increases our desire to sacrifice more of our heart increases. It is a beautiful cycle and a beautiful sacred experience to see Christ in our lives through our efforts and through His. He is the reason for the season and He is the one we want to remember at this time of year.
My Gift to Christ and My Challenge for Christ this Christmas
Above is a link for a printable that you can use to give your gift to Christ this Christmas. Print it out along with the scripture below to help your family create a new Christmas Tradition focused on Christ.
What a joy it is to have a Christmas tradition, as a family, that brings us closer to Christ and honors His birthday.
