Do consider marking your child's spiritual birthday and commemorating his decision to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior. A time of reflection, re-telling his conversion story, and praying for God's blessing during the coming year would be appropriate, along with any other festivities you wish to include.

Christmas is a time of mixed feelings for many people. Maybe you didn't grow up in a Christian family. Perhaps you associate the holidays with drunken relatives or the highway death of a loved one. Perhaps it was a time when your mom went all out with cooking, cleaning, baking, and wrapping gifts--and tensions ran high because she couldn't get it all done. If you do not have happy memories of the season, determine to rewrite your story from this point forward. Start your own traditions, ones that both highlight the meaning of Christmas and fit in with this season of your life. Be selective--remember, you're adding to your already heavy workload, so choose wisely. Here are some traditions that have worked in our family.

In place of Christmas cards, I send photocopied letters, personalizing each with a brief note. Sometimes they're sent late, and one year I didn't send any at all. No one has disowned us yet. I'm even considering emailing this year's batch. Is that allowed?

Our large local extended family always shares Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, rotating between homes. The hostess prepares the entrée and develops a menu of options for the guests to bring. This way no one ends up making the whole meal, and the foods still coordinate with each other.

Christmas gift-giving began as a way to remember both the gifts of the Wise Men and the greatest gift of all--Jesus. Unfortunately, we often allow buying and wrapping presents to become the focal point of the Christmas celebration, depleting our budgets and ourselves in the process.

Gratitude is a powerful antidote to greed. Our family learned to open gifts one at a time, stopping to thank the giver (if present) with a hug or kiss. We made a point of sitting down together to write thank-you notes. Little ones can dictate theirs for you to write. A picture of the gift with the child brings a smile to a distant relative who couldn't attend your celebration.

What to do with Christmas gifts after you receive them? That's a tough one. If you're really ruthless, you can decree that nothing comes into the house unless another item goes out. We all seem to have the "I might need this someday" attitude. It's as if we think God can't provide for our future as well as He has provided for our past. Work with each family member to find a home for new items. If it has an assigned place, it is more likely to be put away each time. Consider rotating old toys into storage for awhile.

We did several things to keep the focus on Jesus' birth. Each evening during Advent, we opened a new little door in our Advent calendar, reading a stanza of the poem until Christmas Eve when we finally opened every door. Hearing the poem every night, the boys had much of it memorized by Christmas, and they still recall it as adults.