| | | | |

12 Days of Christmas (2017) – Day 6

10th Annual #12DaysofChristmas Giveaways (2017) at karenehman.com.

GRAND PRIZE!!!

One of you WHO COMMENTS ON ALL TWELVE POSTS AND ALSO SHARES ABOUT THE SERIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA will win a grand prize from me, pictured here.

10th Annual #12DaysofChristmas Giveaways (2017) at karenehman.com.

REMEMBER…in order to win the grand prize, you must leave a comment on all 12 posts. You can start with Day One HERE.

OK, let’s get started with our sixth day’s guest, Arlene Pellicane!

**********************

Christmas Coming Alive

How can you make Christmas come alive for your children, grandkids, nieces or nephews without a phone or any screens?

When my three kids were younger, we’d decorate gingerbread houses together with other families from church.  Now that they are older, they are my best assistants in everything Christmas.  Each year during Thanksgiving break, we take out our artificial tree (which we bought at a garage sale in the heat of summer for next to nothing!) and decorate the house.

My oldest Ethan is in charge of decorating the mantle with a Lego scene.  Noelle dresses up the staircase and puts up the stockings.  Lucy starts putting together the manger scene with our Little People set from years ago.  Giving each child a job gives them the pride of ownership.  We decorate the tree together with homemade ornaments (including ones my forty-something husband made in kindergarten) and ornaments from places we’ve been.  Many of the ornaments have dates written on them to help us remember.

We’ve hosted Christmas parties for our kids’ classrooms at our home.  It’s a Christmas cookie and caroling (sometimes chaotic) extravaganza!  Everyone brings cookies to share and we provide the hot chocolate.  Before caroling in our neighborhood, we rehearse carols about the real meaning of Christmas such as “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Joy to the World.”  The first time we did this, I was amazed at how many children didn’t even know the words to these songs!  We share the story of the first Christmas with props and dramatic voices and then stampede down our street, ready to sing the newly learned carols.

Look for ways to create screen free joy for your family by decorating, serving, baking, singing, and sharing the good news of Christmas.  Put away your iPads and phones more often during the Christmas season.  Instead look for ways to involve your kids in celebrating Christmas.  You don’t need Wifi to have a very merry Christmas season.  In fact, your home will probably be a whole lot more peaceful without it!

Day Six Giveaway

For the 12 Days of Christmas series, I am giving away two of my books to help tame your technology, Calm, Cool and Connected: 5 Digital Habits for a More Balanced Life and Growing Up Social: Raising Relational Kids in a Screen-Driven World (co-authored with Dr. Gary Chapman).

10th Annual #12DaysofChristmas Giveaways (2017) at karenehman.com.



Arlene Pellicane is a speaker and author of several books including 31 Days to Becoming a Happy Mom and 31 Days to a Happy Husband.  She has been a featured guest on the Today Show, Fox & Friends, and Focus on the Family.  Arlene lives in San Diego with her husband James and their three children.  To learn more, visit ArlenePellicane.com or connect with Arlene on Facebook or Twitter.

**********************

12 Days of Christmas Giveaways Rules

  1. You can comment on all 12 days (once per person) up until midnight Pacific time, Sunday, December 17. All posts are linked on Day One here.
  2. U.S. Addresses only please.
  3. One daily winner will be chosen from each day’s comments and all winners (including Grand Prize) will be announced on Wednesday, December 20.
  4. Share the giveaway with your friends and followers using the share buttons below.
  5. If you’re not already subscribed, click here and receive an email notification each day of our series.

 

Similar Posts

345 Comments

  1. Your book sounds very good! Like the ideas of limiting technology. We like to bake gingerbread, and other goodies, share with pastors neighbors, etc.

  2. we are always looking for new fun traditions to start with our growing family. This year our daughter wants to go caroling and I realized most of the kids don’t know the words to many traditional christmas carols so I think we will work on learning some new songs and then walk around our neighborhood singing and looking at the lights

  3. I am so thankful my daughters (16 yrs. & 12 yrs,) love to help get our home in the Christmas spirit by helping me decorate, baking and decorating cookies with my mom, their Grammie. We read more Christmas-themed books, watch sweet Christmas movies, host more dinners at our house and listen to more music. I want to make it a point to have more meaningful time together all year! Thank you, Arlene!

  4. This would be a great gift. I have a 13 year old son and a 5 year old daughter Sometimes the kids just want to be connected on the internet and not do anything else.

  5. This would be a great book to have. It’s so hard nowadays to keep kids away from electronics. I have a 13 year old son and a 5 year old daughter and sometimes they don’t even want to go out because of the internet.

Leave a Reply to Staci Richard Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *