Educating Leaders - No Conveyor Belt Education Here!

You are probably saying to yourself that I have lost my mind if I think I can have a Stress-Free Christmas. Well, my mind is still here, and we have had several Stress-Free Christmases in the past few years. I thought I would share some of the lessons I have learned to help reduce the stress during our holiday seasons and celebrate the origins of Christmas.

1. READ GOD’S WORD EVERY MORNING
Starting my day with God’s Word seems obvious, but sometimes it gets left out. I need to hear from God and speak to Him each day so that I am strengthened and ready to be the mom He wants me to be. At breakfast, we have family devotions and can start our kids’ day on the right foot as well. Each of the kids know they are to read their Bible when they wake up. Of course, some need a little more reminding than others.

2. DON’T DO EVERY ACTIVITY THAT COMES ALONG
This seems quite apparent, but it took me about 10 years to learn this lesson. Actually, my wonderful husband helped me learn how to reduce the activity in our lives during the holiday season. In the past, I wanted our kids to experience everything available during this season. What was actually happening was I began to harbor stress that would usually explode around Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. (I’m sure none of you have ever experienced this )

3. SIMPLIFY YOUR ACTIVITIES
What works for our family is to choose 1 or 2 Christmas activities to attend outside our home. Anything else we do is done in our home. One of the best ways this reduces stress is that I am not "persuading" my husband to attend one more Christmas activity each week. He still spends all day working to provide for our family. Consequently, he is much happier going to a few activities and enjoying our family and friends at home. We enjoy having others in our home, so we capitalize on this. Our children help us clean and cook, so our work is reduced and I am not stressed when our guests arrive.

4. ENJOY YOUR HOME
I will always have more activities for us to do than we have time for. This past Thanksgiving weekend I decided which activities will wait until next year.

REMEMBER: YOU CAN’T DO EVERY THING, EVERY YEAR.

I try to choose activities that encourage my children to think of others, instead of themselves, during the holidays. One of the activities we used to do is raising money for a missionary family. My children would take orders for small loaves of pumpkin bread and chocolate chip cookies. After baking and delivering the goodies, they would pay me back for the supplies. The rest was their profit which was used to buy games and toys for a missionary family friend. This year we hope to have some kids over to bake cookies so that their moms can do some Christmas shopping alone. We might host a Christmas card stamping party for younger kids. I’m still brainstorming how that will work. I have some other ideas that are included in Celebrate Advent, Christmas and Epiphany

5. MAKE CHRISTMAS YOUR SCHOOL
Drop some of your formal academics and enjoy the season. There are plenty of math, writing and reading concepts we practice as we bake, shop, and prepare for Christ’s birthday. When my kids were homeschooling, we still read aloud each morning and then worked on a Christmas project. This may include handwork type crafts or other quiet projects.

DO YOU FEEL STRESSED DURING THE HOLIDAYS?

Take a moment right now and prioritize all the activities available to your family. Choose only 1 or 2 activities that the entire family can enjoy and pass on the rest. Enjoy your family being at home. Have another family over to roast marshmallows and enjoy the fellowship. Most of all, keep your eyes focused on Jesus Christ. Without His love for the world, you would not be celebrating the true reason for Christmas:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ~ Romans 5:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. ~Ephesians 2:8

Blessings,
Kerry Beck

P.S. If you want to receive more ideas about celebrating Advent and Christmas "Simply" at home with your family, go to this website: http://budurl.com/christmascelebration

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Copyright Kerry Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Kerry Beck gives free Advent calendars with daily Christmas projects to prepare you for Christmas. You will discover lots about the the symbols of Christmas with her projects.

How was your Thanksgiving weekend? We had a great time with my family at my parents’ farm. Steve took Ashley & Jesse (our future son-in-law) deer hunting, so there was a lot of commotion Thanksgiving morning after the hunt.

For the past few years, we’ve re-launched my Christmas Celebration Ideas package the week after Thanksgiving with a live webinar…and it’s been alot of work! This year, I’m doing things a bit differently so that I can have more time with my family.

Each year at this time, I realize how we get further away from the real meaning of Christmas, the celebration of Jesus’ birth. We get caught up in the hectic pace of trying to do every Christmas activity available when we should be slowing down to enjoy our friends & family. That’s where the true celebration of Christmas is. So, I’m slowing down and you get to benefit.

Here’s how it works:

1. "The 5 Secrets to Rekindling the True Spirit of Christmas" FREE Workshop

Instead of doing a live webinar, you can watch a replay. This will save me time and you get to watch it at your own leisure. Here’s where you can grab "The 5 Secrets to Rekindling the True Spirit of Christmas." I’ll show you some examples of commercialism in America’s Christmas and then provide some examples of families who have successfully overcome America’s crass commercialism.

http://budurl.com/christmascelebration

2. Advent Countdown Calendar

When you sign up for the webinar, you automatically receive my 25 day Advent Countdown. You’ll get an email each day giving you ideas on celebrating Advent & Christmas. They are short, sweet, and to the point!

http://budurl.com/christmascelebration

3. 1-Week Special Price

When you sign up for the Rekindling Spirit of Christmas webinar & Advent Countdown, you have the opportunity to save 82% on our huge Christmas Celebration Ideas package. You read that right. You get an 82% discount this week…until Friday, Dec 4th. Your low investment is $27 and it includes:

– My Star of Bethlehem Family Study Guide – You can even print out as many copies of the study guide as you need for your entire family.
– Celebrate Advent, Christmas & Epiphany.
– 6 recipe books (Quick & Easy Christmas Dinner, Homemade Christmas, Christmas Candy, Desserts, Crockpot, Thanksgiving)
– Gift making idea book
– Preparing for Christmas audio workshop
– 1 month of our Christian Parenting & Family 12-month course.

It’s less than the cost of a large pizza delivered to your door!

Get all the detail on our 1-week sale here:

http://budurl.com/christmascelebration

Watch your email tomorrow for my "Stress-Free Christmas Ideas."

Blessings, Kerry P.S.

Grab your copy of my webinar & Advent Countdown today while you still have time to use those ideas:

http://budurl.com/christmascelebration

P.P.S. Please forward this to your friends & family.

Advent is the time period from December 1st to December 24th that identifies the days and weeks that come before Christmas. An Advent calendar or wreath is used to track the season, which represents "coming" as a derivative of the Latin word adventus. This time period celebrates the period leading up to the birth of Christ.

The most common form of preparation for Advent is the Advent calendar. Created a wide variety of different ways, this device is used to track the progress of the days that make up the Advent season.

The typical way the calendar is made is by the use of Advent candles. There are 24 candles used to signify the 24 days that precede Christmas, from December 1st to December 24th. When a new day arrives, the family gathers around the Advent calendar and lights a candle to signify the progression of the Advent season.

There are a wide variety of designs that make up an Advent calendar. Calendars are most commonly used by children to track the days of the period. One example of an Advent calendar design is a Christmas tree that has 24 candles on different branches of the tree.

Another Advent calendar design is a candy holder calendar. The candy holder calendar includes 24 pockets that are filled with candy. As each day arrives in the holiday season, someone, usually a child, takes the candy out of the holder and eats it.

You can also track the holiday season by using an Advent wreath. An Advent wreath includes 4 candles to track the weeks of Advent. You light a candle on each week of Advent to track the progression of the holiday season.

In preparing and celebrating the Advent holiday days and weeks, celebrants engage in a wide variety of activities. From a religious standpoint, this is a time period where there is much prayer and even fasting in some cases. Priests and pastors tailor their teachings and sermons to focus on the coming of Christ and what the Christmas holiday is all about. Some worshipers may even decide to sacrifice certain activities such as watching television, listening to certain types of music, etc.

Families celebrating Advent at home have a number of options available to them as well. One of the most common activities that a family can engage in together is to come together and either create or go shopping for an advent calendar that they can display and use together in the house. Families may also create certain Advent-themed games as well.

The Advent holiday season is a time of reflection, celebration, and rededication for the millions of individuals that celebrate it worldwide. As you can see, there are a number of different ways that you can choose to celebrate the holiday. You can use the suggestions and examples that we give in this article or you can use them as a starting point to come up with your own ideas. The choice is completely up to you.

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Copyright Kerry Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Kerry Beck offers free Advent calendars with daily Christmas activities to prepare you for Christmas. You will learn more about the origins of Christmas with many of her activities.

I have been quite concerned with the way America is taking Christout of Christmas.  I'm working on editing a video about what'sreally happening to Christmas these days.  I'll be sharingsome of my findings next week, along with solutions you canuse with your family this Christmas season.  Watch your email for moredetails.

In the meantime, I already have our Advent Countdown up & running.What's an Advent Countdown?

I've created 25 daily emails that give you ideas on how toput Christ back into your Christmas celebration as you preparefor Christmas.  The season of Advent is upon us, usually beginning the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  I want you to be readyso grab your Advent Countdown right here.

http://budurl.com/christmascelebration

When you get your Advent Countdown, you'll also be signed upfor our "first to know" list about our Christmas webinar - 

"Rekindling the Spirit of Christmas & Overcoming the Commercialism in America"

Be sure to tell your friends & family to get their own copyof our Advent Countdown.

http://budurl.com/christmascelebration

Have a wonderful week...have you seen some of the new ideason my blog to celebrate Thanksgiving?

Blessings,

Kerry Beck

P.S.  Enjoy celebrating Advent with your family this year...http://budurl.com/christmascelebration

P.P.S. Remember to whitelist my email so you get all the AdventCountdown ideas.