All I want for Christmas is… a dancing Elmo and a Kidzoom camera and a Littlest Pet Shop Pet Town and…

 

It is all too easy during the Christmas season to lose focus on Jesus and concentrate only on gifts, parties, decorations, and fun. If even adults have trouble keeping Christmas as a celebration of Jesus’ birth, how much more difficult it is for children entangled by the excitement and mystery of Santa Claus. But you can help your young children learn the true meaning of Christmas. Incorporate some of these ideas into your Christmas festivities this year–

To Christians, Easter is much more than Easter bunnies and eggs: it is the most significant day in the year as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. While Jesus should always be the focal point of Easter, many of these more commercial elements of Easter can symbolize parts of the Easter story. While they may have had different meanings at other times in history, now they help us remember our new lives in Christ.

 

The rabbit was a symbol of fertility in ancient times. Now, rabbits represent the abundant new life available to us through Jesus. 

Eggs appear lifeless, but life is inside an egg and can break forth, just as Jesus did in the tomb. The egg itself can also represent the stone that was rolled in front of Jesus’ tomb.

 

The first Easter eggs were painted with bright colors to represent the sunlight of spring. One legend theories that Simon of Cyrene, who carried Jesus’ cross for him, was an egg merchant. When he retrieved his basket of eggs after carrying the cross, he found that all the eggs were miraculously colored and decorated.

 

Chicks are also symbols of new life and re-birth.

Children’s Minister, PTA volunteer, and Scout leader.

 

Christmas is so much easier – babies, sheep, angels, stars. It’s pretty much all about love and presents: things your kids can relate to. Sure there’s the nasty part where Herod kills the baby boys, but that’s not an essential part of the story and you can leave it out if you want to.

 

Easter, on the other hand, is much tougher. You have the joy and celebration of Palm Sunday and the even bigger joy and celebration of Easter one week later. But in between, there is betrayal, denial, torture, pain, and death. How do you explain all this to children?