Christmas Gifts for Jesus

I wrote a Christmas Gifts for Jesus post last year, but this year I have something new to share about how we are now doing this as a family.  I can’t say it will be a yearly tradition, as this is the first year for us, but it is certainly something I hope works out as a family tradition in the future!

I was introduced to the book, The Sparkle Box through a reader who sent me an email about it {thanks!}.  I loved the concept and had never seen the book so I ordered it that night.  When it arrived I read it to myself and began to pray about what the Sparkle Box could look like for us. You can read more on The Sparkle Box website.

After feeling God’s idea for our family in my heart, I read the book to the kids, which they loved, and then brought out the Sparkle Box and shared our family plan for it.

I handed each of them a World Vision Gift Catalog and told them that we are using our Sparkle Box to collect money to give a gift to Jesus on Christmas Day!

A few “rules” came along with this, to help them grasp the heart-meaning of giving. My thoughts behind this comes from the verses in the Bible about giving in secret.

1. Nobody can open the box to count the money until we all open it together on Christmas Day.
2. Nobody can tell anybody else how much money they put into the box.
3. When putting your own money in the box, do it in private, when no one is watching. It is between you and God.
4. You can give money in honor of someone to replace a gift you would have given.  My oldest asked about this and I told him I would rather him take the money he would use to buy me a small gift and put it in the box, along with a simple note saying he gave my gift to Jesus instead. I made sure he knew I did not want him to tell the amount, that’s between him and God.
5. No picking up the Sparkle Box, the box is fragile and as money is put in {coins} it will get heavy and could break!  No opening the box, even to put your money in.  The big red bow keeps the top shut, but there is a small opening in the box where it folds where we can easily slip our money in!
6. The kids are browsing through our gift catalogs to see where their heart is pulled.  As Christmas approaches I will have them each share the 3 things they would love to spend the Sparkle Box money on.  As a family we will vote, or possibly draw randomly if there are too many suggestions.  I plan to have the item{s} we plan to purchase decided upon ahead of time.  If we have extra money we will go down the list we create together and buy more for Jesus! As a family we usually use the The World Vision Gift Catalog, but will also be looking through the Compassion Gift Catalog online, and our Samaritan’s Purse Gift Catalog to choose our gifts.

On Christmas Day we plan to sit together and open the box and count the money all together. We will then find time to get online and order our gift for Jesus. I am hoping this will be a special time for our kids, as they see the power of us joining together to make a difference.

I look forward to seeing how God uses this experience in our family. How does your family honor Jesus on His birthday? I’d love you to share some of your traditions in the comments!