Parenting experts say don't allow the holidays to pull you apart with overloaded schedules. Gather your children near. You'll find something on the "Twenty-Four Days of Christmas" list that will help you focus on the true gift of Christmas, love. You might start a new tradition.
Day one - Start reading The Christmas Carol aloud as a family.
Day two - Help the children go through their toys to give away to needy children.
Day three - Participate in Heifer International by providing a work animal for a family in poverty at www.heifer.org or Samaritan's purse to help children at www.samaritanspurse.org
Day four - Adopt a family for Christmas.
Day five - Make a batch of homemade jelly to share with sanitation workers and the mailman.
Day six - Invite kids over to make candy houses.
Day seven - Make homemade Christmas cards and send them out.
Day eight - Let your kids add a canned good to the food pantry with each visit to the grocery.
Day nine - Adopt an elderly neighbor.
Day ten - Have a special prayer time for the homeless.
Day eleven - Make a family newspaper, "The Christmas Clarion." Let the kids interview members of the family to record Christmas memories from days gone by.
Day twelve - Make homemade gifts for each member of the family.
Day thirteen - Host a birthday party for Jesus. Invite children to come with a gift that will be given to children in need.
Day fourteen - Let the children write and perform a Christmas play for the neighborhood.
Day fifteen - Sing Christmas carols around the dinner table.
Day sixteen - Make homemade bread from scratch…NO machines!
Day seventeen - Watch It's a Wonderful Life with fresh popped corn.
Day eighteen - Make old-fashioned popcorn garland for the tree and kitchen windows.
Day nineteen - Take the family and friends to visit a live nativity scene.
Day twenty - Let the children go door-to-door, taking candy canes to neighbors with a special sentiment attached. (Read The Candymaker's Gift for ideas.)
Day twenty-one - Have a candlelight supper around the Christmas tree.
Day twenty-two - Make a list of family promises to each other for the new year.
Day twenty-three - Read the Christmas story from Luke 2.
Day twenty-four - Attend a Christmas Eve service at your local church.
Christmas morning - Make a birthday cake for Jesus! Don't forget to sing "Happy Birthday!"
