A dear friend of mine mentioned once how her family celebrated Christmas at Thanksgiving time during her growing up years. After Thanksgiving last year, our family discussed that idea of having our family Christmas on Thanksgiving Day. The goal was to be more thankful and less "commercial" for Christmas. We want our children to learn and practice an attitude of thankfulness in everything they say and do all year long.
Yesterday was our "1st Annual Thankful Christmas"! Honestly, when we first started talking about Christmas at Thanksgiving, the kids were kind of opposed to the idea....but we kept talking with them about it, and eventually their mindset changed from "groan" to "glad"!
Now you are probably wondering why would we do something so radically different? To teach our children the value of thankfulness. To teach them the joy of giving to others. You see, all we have really done is move our family Christmas ahead by 1 month, so we can spend the "Christmas month" giving to others. We want our Christmas season to be focused on giving to those around us....which in turn spreads that lesson of gratefulness to others.
We had a wonderful Thankful Christmas yesterday! I have pictures, but I still haven't figured out how to put them on here from my ipad!
So from my family to yours....."We wish you a Thankful Christmas, and a Blessed New Year!
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