Air1 Christmas Radio

Air1 radio is a free internet based radio station that plays contempory Christian music. This time of the year, it also has a Christmas station that plays great music.

Wednesday, November 30th

The Promise of a Savior (Genesis 3:7-24)

⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
 ⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
 ¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
 ¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
 ¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
 ¹³ Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
   The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
 ¹⁴ So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
   “Cursed are you above all livestock
   and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
   and you will eat dust
   all the days of your life.
¹⁵ And I will put enmity
   between you and the woman,
   and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
   and you will strike his heel.”
 ¹⁶ To the woman he said,
   “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
   with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
   and he will rule over you.”
 ¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
   “Cursed is the ground because of you;
   through painful toil you will eat food from it
   all the days of your life.
¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
   and you will eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow
   you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
   since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
   and to dust you will return.”
 ²⁰ Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
 ²¹ The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. ²² And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” ²³ So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Tuesday, November 29th

Sin Enters the World  (Genesis 3:1-6)

 ¹ Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
 ² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
 ⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
 ⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Monday, November 28th

God Creates Man in His Own Image (Genesis 1:26-31)

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,^[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
 ²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image,
   in the image of God he created them;
   male and female he created them.
 ²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
    ²⁹ Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ³⁰ And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
    ³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Family Night #2: The Birth of the Savior

Sunday, December 4th

·    Theme:  The gift of Christ is priceless and surpasses all other gifts.

·    2011 Christmas Memory Verse (James 1:17a)

o   Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.

·    Lesson for Elementary School Children:

Do you remember from our family night last week when God first promised that He would send his son?  He made this promise when Adam and Eve were still living in the Garden of Eden.  Although no one knows exactly how many years passed before Jesus was born, it was a very long time--possibly around 4000 years.  You guys think that it is hard to wait for Christmas morning which comes every single year.  God's people had to wait much longer, and they were waiting for a much greater and more important gift. 

Read Luke 2:1-20:  In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. 

·    Alternate Lesson for Preschoolers:

o   “He's Here” pg 176 of the Jesus Storybook Bible

·    Discussion:

o   What is the most important Christmas gift?

o   Do you remember why God needed to give us his Son?

o   Have we done anything to deserve this great gift?

o   We get lots of presents at Christmas.  What makes the gift of Christ more precious than anything that will be under the tree on Christmas morning?  No matter how much we love the other gifts that we receive on Christmas, they will all eventually break and fade away.  But, the gift of Christ is everlasting.  If we accept Him as our Savior, we can live in heaven forever.  Things of this world are always temporary, but the gift of the Savior is eternal.

o   How does God want you to thank Him for this indescribable gift?  We should have grateful hearts, and we should accept this gift.  Think how sad you would be if you gave someone something precious and they didn't accept it. Also, Jesus wants us to love and serve others.  Try to think of ways that you can show God's love to others this week.

·    Week Two Key Verse (2 Corinthians 9:15)

o   Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

·    Learn second verse of “Come All Ye Faithful” (Third Day)

Sing, choirs of angels,

Sing in exultation,

Sing all ye citizens of heaven above,

Glory to God, Glory in the highest;

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

O Christ the Lord, the Lord,

Christ the Lord.

·    Activities for Elementary School Children: 

o   Big Object/Small Object Illustration:  You will need a jar, a bag of rice, and 5 or 6 ping pong balls or other similarly sized objects.  (I am using various objects that came from my son's Batcave.)  Make sure that the large objects have to be placed in the jar before the rice in order for everything to fit. Let the kids try to get all of the objects and the rice in the jar.  Explain that the gift of Christ is the most important part of Christmas (i.e., the large objects).  If He is our first priority, everything else (i.e., the rice) will fall into place.  If we try to put the small stuff first, there is no room for the most important gift.

o   Have the kids write out the Christmas Story:  We started doing this last year and are looking forward to seeing how their account of the birth of Christ evolves over time.

o   Introduce Good Deed Garland:  This is an on-going activity that your family can do throughout the Christmas season that focuses on others.  Cut strips of red and green paper.  Each time a family member does a kind or helpful thing for someone else, write the good deed on the paper.  Every few of days, attach the pieces of paper together to form good deed garland.  Hopefully, your family will enjoy watching the garland grow.
o   Open Small Gift:  For us, this will be a special ornament for each of the kids.

·    Alternate Activity for Preschool Children:

o   Act out the Christmas story:  Let your little ones dress up and retell the Christmas story.  For their costumes, you can use sashes to tie towels around their heads and robes for their clothes. Use a doll for baby Jesus. The Oriental Trading Company also has nativity hats for $3. Make sure that you record their performance.  This can include all members of your family--including your pets.  See the picture at the bottom of this post.

·    Activities for the Upcoming Week:  If your schedule permits, you might consider trying to do some of the things that your kids mentioned when you asked them how we can show God's love to others this week.  Living this out can be a powerful lesson.

Grace writing the her version of the Christmas story last year.

Grace's Story from 2010

Good Deed Garland

After years of being cast as a sheep, Phoenix finally had a break-out performance as a shepherd.

Santa Dollars

This is one of my favorite activities that we do throughout the Christmas season.  My kids love to buy gifts for each other, but it always bothered me to just hand them cash.  It didn't seem like they were experiencing the full benefit of giving since it didn't involve their money. 

So last year, we implemented Santa Dollars.  I simply printed out some play money and laminated it. The kids would earn Santa Dollars by doing chores around the house.  On days that we were preparing for company, they could earn double Santa Dollars.  The kids really got into it, and it was actually very helpful to me.  A few days before Christmas, we cashed them out with real cash and took them shopping so that they could buy gifts for each other.

Here are some pictures of the kids in action.

Wrap your kitchen table

At the beginning of the Christmas season, we cover our kitchen table with wrapping paper. This looks festive and also provides on-going protection for your table while you are doing Christmas crafts and projects.

Advent Activity Calendar

Our goals for December are simple--play, teach, celebrate and rejoice!

I try to move anything that doesn't fall into one of these categories out of the month.  Streamlining is key.  For us, this means letting go of several things.  It means that I don't have the prettiest packages or the fanciest decorations, and I do as much as possible before Thanksgiving.  Otherwise, I am distracted and stressed.  I am not spending time with God, and I am not preparing my heart.  I miss the teachable moments. 

It also means that I have to plan ahead and be intentional.  Three years ago, I started an advent activities calendar.  Each year I sit down and think about all of the activities that I want (and/or need) to do with the kids that year.  Then, I start filling them in on a calendar.  This helps ensure that we actually do all of the fun things that we want to do that year without being unprepared or overwhelmed. It also gives the kids something exciting and fun to do each day of December. 

Our advent calendar is simple.  I place a small piece of paper with each activity into the calendar. Each morning, the kids take turns checking to see what we are going to do that day.  They love it, and it is a huge help to me.  If something pops up and I need to move things around, I do.

I will post pictures and additional details of our activities throughout December, but here some examples of things that we will be doing this year.

·         Good deed garland

·         Decorate the tree

·         Prepare a care package for my niece

·         Create a winter wonderland

·         Who's your nativity neighbor?

·         Make placemats from last year's Christmas cards

·         Make presents for grandparents, aunts and uncles

·         Make wrapping paper

·         Wrap gifts

·         Make treats for our neighbors

·         Make treats for the firemen

·         Make gingerbread houses

·         Make thank you notes

Over the years, I have found that breaking projects into small, manageable pieces is very helpful. It keeps things fun for all of us.  I have also found that if it is not on the calendar, we don't get to it.  So, this has become great tool for our family.

This is the advent calendar that we use.

Family Night #1: The Promise of a Savior

Sunday, November 27^th

• Theme: Jesus was God’s plan from the beginning

• 2011 Christmas Memory Verse (James 1:17a)

o   Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.           

• Lesson for Older Children:

Did you know that Jesus was God’s plan for us from the very beginning?  God had a plan from the moment that Adam and Eve, the first people that God created, chose to disobey him.  Do you remember the only thing that God told Adam and Eve not to do?  The Lord told Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”  Now Satan, took on the form a serpent and decided to trick Eve. He lied to her and told her that she would not die if she ate the fruit of the tree of good and evil.  He said that if she ate the fruit, that she would be like God.  Eve listened to the serpent and ignored God. She ate the fruit and gave some to Adam. He also ate the fruit.  Instantly, sin entered the world. 

 

That very evening, God came into the garden to speak with Adam, Eve and the serpent.  He told them that even though Satan would try to destroy all the people, that someday a man would come and crush Satan.  Who do you think God was talking about?

 

Although this was the first time that God gave people a hint or a clue about his very special plan, it definitely was not the last.  God told Abraham that all of the people on earth would be blessed through him which means that Jesus would come from his family. God made similar promises to Abraham’s son, Isaac, to his grandson, Jacob and to his great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great-grandson King David.

The Old Testament tells us other information about the birth of Christ.  It tell us (i) that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, (ii) that he would be born of a virgin and called Immanuel, and (iii) that kings would bow down to him. There are also numerous prophesies about the life and death of Christ.  The Bible tells us that Jesus would be killed, raised from the dead and that he would ascend to heaven.  Most importantly, it tells us that through his death, we can have eternal life with God in heaven.

 

From the very beginning, God knew that we would need a Savior and that our Savior had to be perfect.  Only his son, Jesus, could be the perfect sacrifice needed to atone for the sin of the world. He made all of these promises so people would have hope and would know that Christ was coming.  These prophesies also helped people know that Jesus was actually God's son.  He was the promised One.

 

• Alternate Lesson for Preschoolers:

o    “The Terrible Lie” pg 29 of the Jesus Storybook Bible

o    “Son of Laughter” pg 58 of the Jesus Storybook Bible

 

• Discussion:

o   Why did God need to send his son?

o   When did God first promise to send his son?

o   What kind of people did God use to carry out his plan?  Abraham and David were ordinary people who made mistakes just like all of us.  God chose them because they loved God.  God has a plan for each of us, and He can use us to do amazing things, if we obey Him. 

• Week One Memory Verse (Matt 1:21)

o   She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. 

• Learn first verse of “Come All Ye Faithful” (Third Day)

O Come All Ye Faithful

Joyful and triumphant,

O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.

Come and behold Him,

Born the King of Angels;

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

Christ the Lord.

• Activities:       

o   Set out the Nativity Scene.  This is the first and only Christmas decoration that we will set out this evening.  We do this to emphasize that the holiday season starts with the birth of Christ and that this is the most important reason to celebrate.

o   Play Hiding Baby Jesus.  Let the kids take turns hiding Baby Jesus somewhere in the house and then have everyone look for Him.  After they have each had a turn, talk about how easy it is to lose sight of Jesus during Christmas.

o   Make Christmas verse ornament:  This can be as simple or as elaborate as you want.  You can see a picture below of the very simple ornament that we made last year.    
o   Open Gift:  I usually have a small gift for the kids.  Last year, it was Christmas PJs.  This year, I have an inexpensive nativity scene for each of them to keep in their room.

Family Night Overview

Family night is my absolute favorite activity that our family does throughout the Christmas season.  We have a total of five family nights which take place on the four Sunday evenings leading up to Christmas and Christmas Eve (or the last night that we are at home before Christmas).  We make every effort to avoid scheduling conflicts and to protect this time.

Each family night has a theme, scripture/Bible story, discussion questions and fun activities to reinforce the primary lesson of the evening.  We also work on memorizing our Christmas memory verse and learn part of our family's Christmas carol for the year.  

If you have very young children, I would recommend that you use "The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name" as your primary text. This children's Bible does an excellent job pointing to the birth of Christ in each and every story, and it also has great pictures which helps hold their attention. We used this as the base text for our family nights until last year, and I will be referencing certain stories from this Bible as the alternative text for families with very young kids.

You can find "The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name" at Christian bookstores and here.

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."  Proverbs 22:6