The Greatest Gift of All This Christmas

Thank you, Mama Erika, for our logo! 🙂

“I’m co-hosting the Keeping Christ in Christmas Blog Carnival, with Raising (& Teaching) Little Saints, Arma Dei: Equipping Catholic Families. We’ll be sharing different ways, tips, stories and real-life experiences that will help us focus on Jesus as the Reason for the Christmas season. Please scroll down to the end of the post to see the list of carnival entries.”

It has been a tiring week so far for many of us, I’m sure. Christmas is almost here and many people (at least here in the Philippines) have been complaining about the crowded shopping malls, the super-long hours stuck in traffic jams, and other “inconveniences” that come with the Christmas rush.

From a global viewpoint, we have also been heartbroken over the Newtown shootings and many other tragic events happening all over the world, including in our very own country, where Typhoon Pablo has affected the lives of thousands of Filipinos. It will be a sad Christmas for many, many families, and only faith, hope and love can see them (and us) through.

This carnival that my friends Erika and Monica and I are hosting was supposed to go live on December 18, but we chose to postpone it in honor of the Sandy Hook victims — 20 of whom were young children who were the same age or almost the same age as some of our own children.

Yes, we live in a broken, hurting world. And yes, there really is evil in our societies, communities and homes.

Which is why we believe that keeping Christ in Christmas is really important. Actually, not just keeping Him in Christmas, but keeping Him in every second of our lives. Many people reacted to the Newtown shootings by saying that one of the things that led to the tragedy was that we took Christ out of our schools and have been trying to keep Him an “outsider.” Someone separate from our lives; Someone we seek only during trying times; Someone who doesn’t have a right to “meddle” in our everyday affairs.

But this is not true. And this is why we hope to spread the TRUE message of Christmas: It’s all about the Baby born in a manger, over 2000 years ago. God became man, human and divine. To save us.

Photo from

This is why, in our own family, we have started our own traditions, scattered throughout the Liturgical Year, including Advent. We make a big deal about preparing and waiting for Jesus’ birthday by doing different activities per day with the kids, like reading and hanging the books from our Advent Calendar, and unwrapping Advent and Christmas and faith-themed books per day.

We teach our children about St. Nicholas, rather than Santa Claus.

“Presents” from St. Nicholas! 🙂

We also try to spend less during Christmas and give more (though admittedly, this year, we’ve spent more than I wish we had!). I don’t regret though, that some of the things we spent money on were used to convey the deeper meaning of Christmas, like the candle we used to make our simple Christ candle.

The kids posing with our Christ candle

The kids have also been enjoying playing with the Nativity set I bought last year from Papemelroti, which I placed in a simple sensory bin, much like . This time though, I was able to buy some nice smooth stones and “grass” from SM, a local department store. (I got another Nativity set for our “main Christmas centerpiece,” also from Papemelroti.)

Nativity sensory bin contents: Multi-colored stones from SM department store, rice and (not shown) “grass,” also from SM. I love it when Rysse plays with the Nativity figures and makes up her own stories! 🙂

We also watched “Rise of the Guardians,” and tried to teach the kids more lessons about our faith. You can read my review of it on Smart Parenting’s website here if you like.

More than all the activities though, we hope that our kids will realize that despite all the gifts people have been showering upon them lately, the greatest gift of they (and we) could ever receive, the greatest gift of all, is JESUS. To us, that’s what keeping Christ in Christmas is all about.

I loved Tim’s reaction when he “unwrapped” Baby Jesus at midnight on Christmas Eve. 🙂

Here are the links to the other blog carnival participants. I hope you’ll take the time to visit them and leave a comment on their posts! 🙂 The list will be updated throughout the day, so please do come back and check on them. God bless us all!

The Greatest Gift of All This Christmas

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