We’ve made it to the last month of the year — December is here. This is the weekend many of us will begin hauling boxes up from our basement or down from our attic — as we attempt to usher in the season of Christmas.

Here are a couple of traditions we enjoy in our home that you may like to do in yours. We’ve used an Advent Calendar for years to count the days until Christmas. I bought it at a Christian bookstore. It has little pockets with numbers 1-25 on them, and inside each pocket is a little stuffed piece that we take out each day to create a Nativity scene.

The first few days are things like stars, the moon, clouds, etc. Then we add in angels, sheep, donkeys, camels, shepherds, wise men, and eventually the family of Jesus. This is always one of our favorite activities to do first thing in the morning — and I never have to hear, “How many days until Christmas?” because my kids can see the calendar and count for themselves!

We’ve ended up with several of those little tabletop trees, and I let the kids have one in their rooms all month. It’s a nice scene to see them going to sleep in the glow of tiny Christmas lights. On one of our table trees, we decorate using a book called “Adornaments.” Each little ornament is a small book — you open it up each day the twelve days before Christmas and read what the ornament means. Each is a symbol of Jesus. My kids love doing this. A friend gave this book to me last year, and I must tell you — it’s so easy for busy parents. And as the kids read, I’m reminded to celebrate Christ as the center of Christmas.

In years past, we’ve decorated a Jesse Tree, using a book called The Advent Jesse Tree: Devotions for Children and Adults to Prepare for the Coming of the Christ Child at Christmas (by Dean Meador Lambert). Our church used this book and taught us how to make ornaments that all relate to the whole story of the birth of Christ — beginning in the Old Testament. It’s really a magnificent way to give your family a glimpse of the BIG picture.

Oh, we also love to pull out our Christmas books and videos. A few years ago, I invested in some of those red and green Rubbermaid boxes, and they’ve been definitely worth it. (Though this year, I’m going to get better at LABELING the boxes with exactly what’s inside.) I used to not know what to do with all the Christmas books we got as gifts. They’d end up on the kids’ bookshelves and would be ignored and forgotten by Easter. But now, we pack them away at the end of the season and pull them out again with our decorations. They stay NEW this way! We have one book that sings little Christmas songs — that has got to be nearly ten years old. It still works, and every child has loved on that book.

So, from my house to yours. Now it’s your turn to help me out. What are your most-loved Christmas decorations?

I can get overwhelmed just thinking of all that I have to do — but I try to take it step by step and focus on what really matters — that my family enjoys being together celebrating the birth of our Saviour. Jesus is the REAL focus of the season. But it’s up to me to provide the background sounds, sights, smells, and TASTES (mmm…) to make their memories more tangible.

P.S. Just in case you think I might have my act together: I don’t! The Advent calendar is still in a box as of this posting — and will come out tomorrow, a day late. As I grocery shopped yesterday for seven people and seven cats, I felt like I was on the edge of a cliff, teetering very close to the edge. (Teething baby, one ear infection, two baton twirlers in today’s Christmas parade, one 4th grader in need of styrofoam balls for a solar system project, two light-saber-wielding knights in very LOUD action…) I will not make it through one tiny second of Christmas without being plugged into God’s strength through prayer. There — the TRUTH to “how I do it!”