Are you 圣诞-able?

This is a photo of our Christmas tree this year. We have enough of the green prickly plastic leaves version as it always leave a trail of fake leaves and is cumbersome to store.

Every year we will tell the kids to place all their presents under the tree. Even if it’s presents that they chose (and parents paid for) or presents they receive from friends, all will go under the tree. All gifts will remain there until we open all of them together on 26 December Boxing Day.

I remember that when they were little kids, they received a huge load of toy presents. We had this tradition where we told the kids to choose

3 to keep

2 to give away

1 to give one another

The rest will be kept unboxed until a later time, sometimes forgotten 😂

So why did we do this?

1. I mean how many toys can a kid play with at one time? Choose 3 favorite, and stick to playing with them. If you are bored with them, exchange them with your siblings. It’s more than enough to go around.

2. By leaving the presents under the tree until Boxing Day, the presents were staring at the kids every day. Instructions were clear- only open on 26 Dec. This taught them that little sense of self-control instead of instant gratification. As they got older, the lesser they asked “can we open them already?”.

3. Most importantly, we taught them the idea of “freely you have received, freely you give”. Keep 3, the rest are given away or kept to be given away later on. Tough decisions. But as they grew up, they began to embrace the idea that gifts are freely given to them, it’s a blessing. And blessings are best shared, not kept. “It’s more blessed to give than to receive” Acts 20:35

4. Be thankful for all gifts, whether you like them or not.

During the Christmas season, let us remember the most precious gift given by God to us. This gift is given freely to all men. Jesus is the blessing to remove the curse of sin so let us be thankful for this perfect gift. It is also a time for us to look back at the year and count our blessings. Good or bad, let us again be thankful and don’t compare.

Let us have the 圣诞-able spirit to be thankful and share our blessings with one another 🙏

Blessed Christmas!