We enjoy taking a night to drive around looking at Christmas lights, with orange juice in a thermos and a bag of those cheap cheap cheap Christmas cookies which seem to have less sugar sprinkles on them every year. (The cookies are part of the tradition.) There are certain areas which are lit beautifully, and one home which has a gorgeous light display synchronized with music that you can pick up on your car radio (no kidding), playing music like the Tran-Siberian Orchestra and such. Those are nice, but sometimes we just like driving around and finding the simpler ones. That's always a fun night, which usually ends with our daughter going to sleep in the car and so then my husband and I can have quiet discussions as we drive home.
For the last few years, we've participated in Gospel For Asia's Christmas Gift Campaign, and it's fun to choose a night to prayerfully look through the catalog and see which gift God leads us to... usually an animal or a few animals.
We set up an Advent calendar and also have a book which has little booklets about the nativity to read and hang up each night. One year, I drew and then Gail colored pieces to put on our own nativity scene. She was three or four and did surprisingly well!
Coming up in just a few days, our church has a drive-through Live Nativity and we all take part as actors in the scenes. Well, Gail acts in it two nights and then will come through it on another night, but William and I act in it every night. It is the fifteenth year for our church to do this, and it's interesting to remember how it was a Christmas tradition for my family to drive through it even before we went to that church! There are eleven "living" scenes depicting Jesus' birth with over a hundred costumed actors and dozens of live animals each night. Young children like Gail are in the "village" scene of busy Bethlehem, and sometimes we accompany her there as a family. That's hard for my husband and I, though, as we are dependent upon our glasses and can't wear them in the scence. But the end there is a scene which allows us to wear our glasses, with modern day people from various walks of life who are representing "wise men still seeking Him." So this is where we usually work, standing in costume for hours in the cold (or wet!) while thousands of people drive past. It is three nights (10 hours total) that unites our church, solidifies friendships (there's nothing like "suffering" together) and brings back sharply to mind the reason for Christmas! Last year we had over 4,000 people come through, and the testimonies of those who view it can bring one to tears as hearts are softened and even changed for eternity.
And the colder it is, or especially if it's snowing or sleeting, the more people are moved! We have to remember that as we stand shivering.
So that is a major part of our Christmas traditions here! After Live Nativity, it seems like it is REALLY time for Christmas!
PS- If anyone lives in northwest Tennessee, come on over to New Harmony Baptist Church for the Live Nativity November 30 through December 2!
I'm Shawna...
... a forgiven child of God since 1994 (age 16)
... happily wed to William since 1996
... mother of our long-awaited Gail (3/15/2006)
... missing 6 little ones (4 miscarriages, 2 ectopics)
... starting Rome to the Reformation this fall!
