Gingerbread Pancakes

Here is a Christmas morning tradition at our house - Gingerbread Pancakes

You can make them round like regular pancake or use a spoon to make them in the shape of gingerbread men.

Merry Christmas!

Non-Consumable Christmas

The thought of the avalanche of toys coming our way during the next few days makes me weak in the knees. Where am I going to put it all?

To off-set this problem, I try to ask for or buy non-consumable presents for my children. My favorite is to ask for memberships. This year for Christmas my children will receive memberships to the Zoo, Children's Museum and Natural Science Museum. It is a gift that gives all year long. Often, the one who gives the membership will join us on the outing at least once. Also, I make it a point to verbally remind the kids that so and so is the reason we get to enjoy our day at the Zoo. Most of the memberships are also national, which means it will say you a lot on vacation. Finally, more children you have, well you can just do that math. There is no way to store or play with all of those toys, and it gets very expensive for your relatives or they end up having to buy something cheap. This idea can be more economical, especially if you can get them to chip in together.

What are other non-consumables that make good presents?

Christmas Gift Ideas for your Neighbors

Cannot remember how I rabbit trailed to this blog post, but it has some great ideas for those little gifts for neighbors and such. We always give the children's librarians a small gift, it would be nice to do something different next year. This December I have been sick so much that I have not so much as baked a cookie, but I am going to print these ideas out and put them in my holiday binder. These ideas are not just "cheap,"I hate going cheap with giving. The gifts ideas are very thoughtful, on budget and useful, though there are some I would not give myself. I love when simplicity and goodwill are combined.

30 Neighbor Christmas Gifts Ideas

My favorites ideas are the # 14 chocolate covered pretzels and #25 frozen lasagna.

This year I got Grace's art and dance teacher each an Amaryllis bulb with a pot to brighten up their house this winter. What ideas can you add to the list?

Santa Claus at Our House

When embracing the world, we as Christian are always questioning ourselves - how much world is in the world, but not of it? Santa Claus is one of those puzzles. At least he is based upon an actual Christian, St. Nicholas. The problem comes into play when the secular world hijacks Santa, morphing him into a God like figure. Santa is portrayed as knowing when you are good and bad, as being omnipresent. Celebrating Santa in more on the Happy Holidays side of the season, and fears Christians into viewing him as a distraction from Jesus, the real star of Christmas.

Is having your kids sit on Santa's lap bad? Should you donate all your Santa decorations to Goodwill? Could you proudly pronounce, "We do NOT do Santa." If you want to ban the jolly fat guy, that is completely your choice, but here is what we do at our house. Only you can pray and discern what God would like you to do in this matter. Santa is not a matter of orthodoxy.

All the mythical characters are explained to our children as being make-believe. The Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa included. We explain make-believe is fun, and anything can happen there. I must admit that Disney World is one of my favorite destinations, it is the ultimate make-believe environment. It oozes magic. However, wishes and magic are make-believe, they do not make things happen (Mr. Rodgers has a great book on this if you can find it). Dreams are great to have, but real is real and make-believe stays in make-believe.

Santa is magical to my children because he lives in their imagination. My five year old told me the Tooth Fairy lives next to Santa Claus. Last year we sprinkled reindeer food on our lawn, the kids loved it. They nervously sit on Santa lap and with a joyful smile, as they whisper their wishes for toys. We enjoy movies like The Polar Express. Every year we think about doing a Santa sighting on Christmas Eve, but the suit never materializes. I feel my children have fully enjoyed the "magic" of Santa, while we have been able to be honest with them. Learning what is real and what is make-believe is an important lesson for a child. It in no way crushes their childhood.

What we have not done is give Santa Claus God like characteristics like I mention above. If they say in a movie that Santa knows when your are naughty or nice, I verbally remind the kids that only God has that power. We also do not tell the kids that Santa brings them presents. If they want to make-believe that Santa does, that is fine. Santa is not used as a leverage for getting good behavior either. Children should focus on honoring God, not pleasing Santa. Decorations depicting Santa are not banned in our home, but I do not think we have any other than a Santa hat. We do try to use decorations that point to Christ in Christmas.

There is a line between being honest with your children and only telling them what they need to know. Personally to me, saying "Santa is real" is a falsehood. I cannot see how a falsehood honors God, in fact I would say it is braking a commandment. The smart kids will figure it out pretty early anyway. You have more of a chance of prolonged magic if you let Santa live in make-believe. It is much easier to answer, "Mommy, how can Santa be in so many places? Anything can happen in make-believe, my sweet."

I would just like to add that it is the way you walk out Christ daily in your life that matters most in raising Godly children. Issues like Barbie dolls, Trick-or-Treating, and Santa are just side shows. Pray. Seek God. Seek wise council. Listen and leave the mommy worries at His feet.

Do you "do" Santa? How do you handle the issue? I like to hear other people's perspective on the matter, even when they are completely against mine.

A Simple Christmas

Like most area's of my families' life, Christmas needs to be simplified as well. Every year I try to make it more simple so that we can draw closer to Christ. This is just my own opinion, but I think less is more for the holidays. It makes more fun and enjoyable for all.

This year to simplify gift giving I gave all the Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles the same present, which was a photo album from Shutterfly. The grandparents will receive a large album and the Aunts and Uncle ( our brother and sisters ) a small 8 X 8 album. The project only took me a few nights thanks to Shutterfly's storyboard feature. It also helped that I regularly upload my photos during the year. All the albums are identical, so I only had to make one. This makes a good present because it is not something they can buy themselves, and there is not too much else for me to get them because they buy what they want for themselves.

One thing we are doing again this year that has worked very well in the past is that each child only gets 3 presents from us and there is 1 large family present. Their relatives give them their presents at different times, so this is pretty much all they open on Christmas morning. For the three presents, my husband and I give one large ($30 tops), one medium and one small. This allows us to take a slow pace and open one present at a time, watching another family member open their gift. Limiting the gifts really helps to make Christmas morning more enjoyable.

How do you simplify Chritmas?