Songs to Get You into the Spirit of the Season
Michael W. Smith has plenty of great Christmas albums, but this one is my favorite. I adore pretty much every song, especially Lux Venit, Anthem for Christmas, and Christ the Messiah, but my absolute favorite is Gloria. I even used it to choreograph a group number for a bunch of skaters in our winter ice show one year, just because I was inspired by about ten specific notes in this song.
An Activity to Add to the Jolly Atmosphere
Tonight is all about focusing on your family's traditions. When I was growing up, Christmas Eve meant a candlelight service at church, a ride home along well-decorated streets, then fun snack food at home while we opened our presents while Christmas records played in the background. I'd finally trot off to bed way past my bedtime, while my poor parents still had quite a bit of work ahead of them.My Christmas Eve with G is still solidifying (especially now that Gv has joined us), but we follow church up with a special meal of fancy (for us) food (think imported cheeses, prosciutto, olives, bubbly) and then watch our final Christmas movies before heading to bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads.
Some Reading Sure to Garner a Great Response
You know you have a book problem when you discover you have seven copies of a book that gets read only once a year.
Not that I know anything about that.
Oh, no.
So between the copies that were mine as a child and those we've gathered in the past few years, this adaptation is probably my favorite. It's a really cool pop-up book and since every version of this story includes the same original poem by Clement C. Moore, the treatment of the illustrations in the book really make a difference.
A Movie to Get You in a Merry Mood
This was always shown on television around the same time as Frosty (same animators), but I haven't noticed it so much these days. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas is a fun cartoon with a clever storyline focusing on some mice and a clockmaker and belief in Santa. It's short length is perfect for keeping the kids occupied while you get your evening's festivities set up.
Faith Focus to Put You in a Festive Frame of Mind
If
you haven't downloaded them already, make sure to grab your free coordinating printables to go along with this portion of the series.
Day 25 - Birth
Add your baby in the manger sticker to the tree to serve as a reminder for today's verses.
What will you be doing to observe this twenty-fifth day of Advent and what do your Christmas Eve traditions look like? I'd love to hear! Leave a comment or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.
Join me throughout the rest of this season for more great ideas to incorporate into your family traditions to help celebrate this special time of year. Be sure to pin the series landing page so you can find every post, or better yet, sign up for free updates so you don't miss a single suggestion and to get your free printables!