Start thinking about Christmas
Aug 19th, 2008 by Admin
Christmas take a bit of planning and organizing, but most of us wait until the last minute.
Why not start early this year?
It doesn’t matter if you’re into woodworking, sewing, painting, pottery, or creating handmade paper. More than ever, people enjoy giving that, one of kind special gift at Christmas time.
Especially if you have children, find ways to make Christmas an unselfish holiday for them. Find a needy family to buy gifts for, make fruit baskets for friends and neighbors, visit a nursing home, donate to a homeless shelter, make the story of Jesus birth really special (and talk about the rest of His life and ministry, too), make home made decorations that depict scenes from the Bible instead of Santa Clause or the reindeer, in place of “Frosty the Snowman” and “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” sing the carols that glorify God such as “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “Joy to the World”. The main idea is finding a balance in Christmas.
Avoid the Christmas shopping frenzy. The Christmas shopping frenzy can make anyone a Scrooge. In order to maintain your seasonal happiness try to avoid those hectic holiday sales or purchase gifts before Thanksgiving. That way you have time to enjoy the Christmas holiday without making trips to the crowed mall.
Some families now include sponsoring a child overseas or providing a goat or chickens for a micro-enterprise as a means of teaching their children to reach out to others. Or they help out at a soup kitchen or deliver Christmas hampers together.
With the festive season falling in the sunny, warm months of summer, the Christmas holiday season is a popular time to escape. Find some of the hidden getaway spots and Christmas holiday ideas, so you can enjoy a peaceful break from the madness of the silly season.
You don’t need to spend money on Christmas decorations. Actually, it is quite easy to make them yourself and the children will definitely love every minute of it. You can start now, on rainy summer days so everything is prepared when Christmas comes.
Don’t fall into the trap of giving items off a list. Children will often be momentarily thrilled with the latest and greatest toy. If the gift involves more of your money than your time, it will probably be forgotten in the same amount of time you spent to buy it!
Also, consider gifts that are ethical or fair. For example, fair trade items help producers in other countries be paid a fair wage and price for their products. The most famous example are coffee and bananas. Other food products have recently been marketed as fair trade.