Keeping Christmas on the Sabbath
Christmas falls on Sunday this year! What a great day to remember the birth of our Savior 2016 years ago! But it does bring a few challenges to families who want to keep the Sabbath Day Holy. How can we have fun with gifts and outside play without breaking the Sabbath? How did some families solve this dilemma when Christmas fell on Sunday in 2011 and 2005?
Ideas Families have Tried:
Upon discovering Christmas was to be on Sunday this year, Mark and I talked it over with our kids and decided together to switch dates! We would do our Christmas on Saturday and their Christmas Eve on Sunday! First, we planned to ask Santa to come one day early to their house! (And, that kindly old man was of course happy to help us keep the Sabbath!) So he brought all the presents on Friday night, for a Saturday Christmas! Our kids could play with all their outdoor toys and do all our usual Christmas day traditions on Christmas Eve–Saturday this year! Then on Sunday, we had our Christmas Eve traditions. So it was on Sunday night that we set aside our toys from the previous day and, after church, sat together to listen to the Christmas story from the Bible. The younger ones dressed as Mary and Joseph, Shepherd or Wiseman and acted out the story. The family sang carols and had a wonderful, reverent day rejoicing in the Savior’s birth! It worked great, and their kids felt good about the way their family had kept Christmas Sunday a Sabbath day.
My friends–I’ll call them the Madsens–decided for their Sunday Christmas that year, they would give more reverent gifts. It was a good year for books and clothes. One of the boys got a new mission suit. Some got music they’d been wanting. The family received board games and tried them out around the table after Christmas dinner. It was a mellower Christmas then others, but it worked. The family enjoyed the day and each other, and made a good memory.
“This year Christmas Day falls on Sunday. What a blessing to celebrate Christ’s birth and His perfect Atonement as we receive the sacrament on that day.” Douglas D. Holmes, First Presidency Christmas Devotional. https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/christmas-devotional/2016/12/the-gift-of-the-holy-ghost?lang=eng Hope your family will enjoy a marvelous day together this year!
I’d love to hear your ideas! Please comment below!
It was very insightful to write this post. I was just thinking that some of the presents we have for our kids are not things we do on the Sabbath. I figured we would wait until Monday to play with them. But, that may be very hard for the kids to wait an extra day. I like the idea of switching Christmas Day and Christmas Eve. I honestly had not thought of that! That is a great suggestion, thanks for sharing.
It’s kind of nice having Christmas on Sunday! Honoring the Savior’s birthday on the Sabbath really helps put what’s most important into focus! Some great ideas here!