My Favorite Christmas Memory

My favorite part of Christmas is first about Jesus, then family—both my own and the families of those who are near and dear to me.

Everyone has their favorite Christmas stories—you know, the ones that just pop into your mind when you think “Christmas.” I have several! One is from when I was young, and our family received a little puppy. His mother had milk fever, and he had to be fed with an eye dropper. Because he came to our home on Christmas Day, we—of course–named him Chris!

And then there was the time when Jim was deployed in the Army. He was able to come home for Christmas, so he asked me to wait to put up the tree so we could do it together. We got it all done, and he got the vacuum cleaner out and—well, you guessed it—he pushed our beautiful little Christmas tree over as he was vacuuming around it!

But my most favorite memory is of our family as missionaries in Singapore. That Christmas, we were away from family and home and church and Christmas trees and cool weather! As Christmas came, one of my daughters said, “We can’t have Christmas without a Christmas tree!” So she grabbed some construction paper and outlined a tree, cut it out, taped it on our stone wall in our bungalow, and even made paper ornaments to hang on it.

When our family thinks of our favorite Christmas, that’s the one we love to talk about. How about you? What’s your favorite Christmas memory? Here are six ways you can make good family memories this Christmas season.

1. Ask everyone to share what they’re doing over the holidays that will be fun and meaningful.
2. Share plans, goals, and dreams for the next year. Be supportive. Dreams aren’t always based on current reality.
3. Talk about the childhood antics of the kids, and how you grew up and spent your Christmases.
4. Share your faith experience…and let others share theirs.
5. Read aloud the Gospel accounts of the biblical Christmas story, and other favorite Christmas stories.
6. Draw people’s names out of a hat and committing to doing two nice things for that person this Christmas.

Time keeps on ticking, and seasons seem to go by in an instant! Be purposeful to pause and develop the relationships that will last a lifetime.

RESPOND:

Father, I pray that we will create many new and wonderful memories together this season as we come together to celebrate the birth of Your Son, Jesus. Amen.

RENEWING RESOURCES:

ThisYear In Review printable is a great tool to record family events:

REFLECT:

What are some of your favorite Christmas memories?

REMEMBER:

Take time this Christmas for meaningful interaction with your family and friends.