teaching christmas

As I said, just a couple of days ago, I am trying to figure out Christmas for our family. How to teach the children the REAL meaning, and how much of the fluff I can really let go of.
On that day I was feeling like I was still missing the elusive mark of "perfect Christmas". But by the time I tucked the kids in to bed on Christmas night, I was feeling pretty good. I really think that it helped to have Christmas fall on a Sunday this year. The children and I attended the one-hour meeting, and it was truly a spiritually nourishing meeting.
Other than that our Christmas day was pretty quiet. The presents that were sent by the grandma's had been opened the day after they each had arrived. And because we are away from family there was nobody that we needed to visit or to have come visit us. It was really relaxing and wonderful.
After dinner Christmas night, we got the children ready for bed, and instead of our normal, before bed scripture reading, I pulled out my bible and read from Luke 1:26-38 and Luke 2:1-40. It was a lot more than the kids are used to. (We usually read one verse each from wherever we are, the children repeat the words after me or Mr. Boss.) And it was different, because I did all of the reading. In retrospect, that is one thing I think I'll change in the future. I want them to participate in that reading.
After prayers we all gave hugs. I wished the children a Merry Christmas, and they wished the same to me... and then to their dad. Ha.

But teaching children about Christmas involves more than what happens on Christmas day. One thing I did this year was draw some pictures on our dryer (my second white board) of moments described in Luke 1 and 2. The first three pictures lasted about a week each. The 4th came on Christmas Eve, and I drew the 5th on Christmas morning.
As each picture appeared the children and I would talk about what was drawn, and I would read the scriptures that correlated with the image.The best part was that, before reading the verses, I would ask the children what they saw. They knew that this was the angel appearing to Mary. And they recognized the scenes in the rest of the pictures, as well.E's response to the second drawing was: "That's Mary and a donkey...and Joseph." And when I asked what they were doing she said: "they're going to Bethlehem." She later added: "Baby Jesus is in Mary's tummy!"The drawings are imperfect, but how they look isn't important. Through these drawings I was able to keep a conversation going with the children during this whole month about the true meaning of Christmas.

And Mr. Boss actually gave me a gift this year. Nothing physical, just a thank you "for the most quiet and relaxed Christmas ever."
I couldn't have asked for anything better.