Christ Centered Christmas Ornaments

Every Christmas I strive to help my family focus on Christ and not so much on the Jolly guy in the big red suit. I want my children to focus on what they can do for someone else. So often they get caught up in their Christmas list and what they are going to get.

A few years ago, I came up with a plan to help my littles focus more on Christ during the holidays.   I buy a nativity and we give a piece away every night to a neighbor family, ending with Baby Jesus.  How many days we do this, depends on how many pieces are in the nativity.  My family has had so much fun with this.  My boys especially love to go on secret missions to deliver the piece without the unsuspecting family knowing who knocked on their door and ran.  As my husband and I have sat in the van watching the scene, we have witnessed our boys do several rolls and dives as they sneak in like undercover agents to deliver the packages.

As we hunker down in our seats, we watch as the door swings open and the receiver of our gift looks into the night for my little undercover agents.  They are good though, as of yet they haven't been caught... except for the time when the receiver yelled out that they forgot their gift.  Oh, that brought so much joy to all my kids.  It was the last night of giving, I think even my girls joined in on delivering the last piece, they had knocked and run, but they weren't quick enough at hiding.  I think the receiver must have been waiting for them, the door flew open and my little agents stopped in horror that they had been caught, the receiver said hey guys you forgot your present.  Excitedly they ran to the door and took the offered package.  This small gesture of kindness brought my kids so much joy. They had been on the giving end, now they were on the receiving end.  That was our first secret mission and after that, they were hooked and have been excited to give out a nativity every year. 

Over the years as we have done this service, I have been a little bit picky about nativities that I choose...it is really hard to find one with an angel and a star, in fact, most do not come with that important part of the story.  The last few years I have opted to do nativity ornaments instead of a full nativity as I figure its easier to store ornaments than a nativity.  

I have been thinking about making my own ornaments for the last couple of years just so I can include which scenes I wanted to. This year I did it and I am so excited about how they turned out.  I wanted to share my results with you.  Please leave a comment below and tell me what you think.

My cow loving daughter was so excited to add a cow
to the nativity. This is her favorite ornament.

All packaged and ready to be delivered.  

This is the second set I'm working on. My
secret agents will not be delivering these...
I don't think the glass would survive their tuck and rolls.

This has been a project rolling around in my head for a while now.  I have finally taken the time to complete it!!! Yay! And just in time for Christmas.  I wanted to create bag toppers and scripture cards to go along with my nativity ornaments and I have finally done so. I have included a picture below of what they look like.