Be Ye Separate

Tis' the Season!

Blessings!

   Well, as will probably be the norm here at the homesteadblogger, I thought I would go ahead to share our traditions and thoughts about the whole Christmas thing:)

   At the risk of offending (you know what I think about "offending":P) I just wanted to take a moment to share:)

   We do celebrate Christmas. A tree, decorations, gifts, light displays etc. We DON'T do Santa, elves, naughty and nice lists or other fictional characters in other holidays:P Nuff said.

   Many years ago we gave up the Santa thing largely because our children had become part of that "gimmegetmebuyme" frenzy that seems to plague every family at this time of year. It was frustrating, stressful, agonizing and downright not fun! Sooooo, we broke the mold and spilled the beans.

   We did a great study on the history of the tree, decorations, gifts, santa, and all the traditions of the season. This made it much more fun for us when we decided to do a homemade Christmas. We still have our santa displays and decorations but we also have angels, stars, snowflakes, snowmen and candycanes:)

   I will say that the idea of convincing our children to believe in a man that truly doesn't exist, while trying to get them to believe in a God they can't physically see, was really confusing even to us. We did become concerned, as others have stated, that the children might begin to think that God was a "tradition" or "makebelieve" because we claim that He knows if they are naughty or nice etc.

   We saw that we were teaching the children to believe that a man (Santa) knew if they were naughty or nice and encourage the children to be good. Reguardless of whether or not they were good they would get gifts anyway. Then the idea that we were only teaching them to be good in order to get something and only at one time of the year wasn't teaching them to be good ALL the time as we should be encouraging them to.

   We have not felt led to stop our way of celebrating and if the Lord has that planned for us then we'll go down that path when He presents it to us:) In the meantime, we enjoy our traditions of decorating our tree, sharing our time with family and friends, donating our services to our community and appreciating the gift of the Father's only begotten Son.  Spending time going carolling with friends, taking time to visit the shut-ins and enjoying the light displays together, makes this season a time of peace, joy and heartfelt warmth.

   Everyone celebrates or not in their own way. I respect others choices in how they go about that. I don't judge one over the other for it. I enjoy finding out how others do or do not spend this season and learning about others traditions and such.

   Here we decorate our tree on Thanksgiving night. We visit our light festival and enjoy riding in the horse drawn carriage with our cups of hot cocoa to see the wonderful displays. We bake and bake and bake some more. We spend time at the mission, make most of our gifts, sing, and stay away from the malls:P And this year we are going to have our fist open house:) I am excited about it and look forward to seeing friends and family visit us at their leisure throughout the day.

   So that's it in a nutshell. Enjoy this season in whatever way you celebrate it.

God be with thee!

Sister Lori

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{ 12:54, Monday, November 26, 2007 } { Posted by homesteadinthemaking }

Amen, It sounds like we do things alot of the same way.
Blessings,
Trixi


~~~We used to be very wrapped up in ourselves oh so long ago in forgotten days and now that our hearts have changed for the Father, we are blessed by our new traditions and a few old ones that we had taken for granted:)
God be with thee!
Sister Lori

Edited by SisterLori on Monday, November 26, 2007 at 15:33

WOW!

{ 13:23, Monday, November 26, 2007 } { Posted by mvose1051 }

An open house? What a neat idea! That sounds like something I need to try to do. Never thought about it before. Come at your leisure! How neat!
Blessings,
Miki

~~~My parents used to have one and so did my aunt (my mothers sister). I remember really enjoying the visits from folks throughout the day. No pressure to prepare a meal, no entertaining, just visits and goodies:)
We make a gift for each family that comes buy...nothing big just a few baked goodies, a couple mugs for the parents (or couples), hot cocoa packets, teas etc.
I am really looking forward to it.
God be with thee!
Sister Lori

Edited by SisterLori on Monday, November 26, 2007 at 15:32

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{ 14:09, Monday, November 26, 2007 } { Posted by TracyMadonia }

That sounds lovely! I so enjoy reading your posts Sisiter Lori. I hope you and your family has a joyous and healthy holiday season!
God Bless!
Tracy

us too!!

{ 14:19, Monday, November 26, 2007 } { Posted by rashel }

Thank you for sharing your traditions with us. I have already shared my thoughts on Christmas on my blog, so I won't here but I will say I agree with you. I plan to start more traditions with my family this year, I think some can be fun to look forward to each year. We do plan to read some wonderful books about Christmas during the month of December and do some baking as well. I just love to bake!
Blessings,
Rashel

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{ 18:52, Monday, November 26, 2007 } { Posted by stitchnchick }

I could have written this post myself!
You described exactly how we celebrate and our thoughts on Santa. I used to have a Christmas open house every year, but when my husband went back to school, time and finances wouldn't really allow it. I sure wish I could come to yours! I'll bring the fruitcake. :-)
Amy


~~~We'll be expecting you:) Wouldn't that be something? Having an open house and having my friends from HomesteadBlogger show up? How thrilling that would be:)
God be with thee!
Sister Lori

Edited by SisterLori on Monday, November 26, 2007 at 21:53

Tis the season

{ 11:47, Tuesday, November 27, 2007 } { Posted by rildapeel1 }

It is amazing how when we follow Jesus how we become more not of the world. I appreciate everyone in celebrating or not for just what they chose. Thanks for sharing with me for it is true not to judge. Being open minded enlarges our territory. God shows us truth at the proper time when we accept and see it. I know both our Christmas will be greater than all those before. Just being able to know God makes everyday like Christmas.[Blessed] Lovingly, rilda *U*