Christ Centered Christmas Ideas with Kids

Keeping Christ in Christmas with kids is something you have to be intentional about. The world is trying its best to make Christmas about materialism, made up characters, and anything but the Word of God. Don’t let them do it. Keep Christ in Christmas at your house.

”…as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”

Joshua 24:15

Read the Bible together

Luke chapter 2 specifically focuses on the birth of Jesus. You can also read the entire book of Luke every day of December leading up to Christmas. With 24 chapters in Luke, you’ll be able to complete it on Christmas Eve if you choose to do this for your Christmas Bible study. It’s a wonderful way for the whole family to get into the habit of daily Bible reading together. You may find that you just choose another book after Luke and keep going! 🙂

Attend church

Either a play or a service at church. Some churches have a candlelight service on Christmas Eve. Find a Bible believing church and get in the company of other believers to celebrate the birth of Christ. When you do this every Christmas, you’re showing your kids what we are really celebrating, the coming of our Savior, Jesus!

Make Christ Centered Ornaments

Making ornaments together is one of my favorite Christmas crafts. It looks different each time we do it. Sometimes we paint wooden shapes, such as a precut tree or ornament shape. Sometimes we get little wooden disks with the bark around the edges and paint our own scenes. In the past, I’ve also taken felt and cut shapes out to sew together to make ornaments. Doing this all together as a family is really fun and the ornaments become a sentimental part of our family Christmas tree. It’s so fun to put them up each year and ooh and ahh over past creations. To keep it Christ centered, nativity ornaments, wisemen, and angels are nice ones to make, along with Bible verses or relevant words. So many possibilities!

Decorate with Christ centered decorations

Rather than using typical commercialized decorations, keep your decorations pointing to Christ. Use the nativity scene, Bible quotes, and phrases that center around Jesus. Avoiding the commercialized decorations that feature other things or characters helps to keep the focus on Christ. It’s a personal decision, but for me, I like to minimize the Santa stuff generally when decorating, because I want all eyes on Jesus.

Talk about Jesus

Consistently let it be in the conversation be about the gift we have in Jesus. “Make much about Jesus,” as my pastor says. The more you talk about Jesus and His birth and teach about Him during this time, the more your children and family will truly connect that meaning to Christmas rather than what the world makes it about. You have to define Christmas for them through how you present it. Don’t let the world take Christ out of Christmas for your family.

Also, if anyone has tried to tell you Christmas isn’t about Jesus…. See this video.

Sing Christmas Songs about Jesus

We like to sing together each night as a family as we do our nightly Bible time all year long. As it gets close to Christmas, this is a good time to incorporate Christ centered Christmas songs. Some favorites of mine include: “Away in a Manger,” “Silent Night,” “Joy to the World,” “Oh Come All Ye Faithful,” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” Choose your favorite Christ centered Christmas songs from when you were growing up and teach them to your children. The classics are still amazing today.

Go through the names of the Lord with Ornaments

I found an ornament kit at a Christian bookstore many years ago, and I like using it to teach the names of the Lord. Each night for twelve days, it includes a new ornament to add to the tree that features a name of God and text to teach it with. It’s also a fun thing to do in the night leading up to Christmas. I usually incorporated it during our nightly Bible time. It also has more ornaments to the tree, which is fun. You can make your own ornaments for this as well if you can’t find a kit like this.

Incorporate Christ Centered Ornaments on Your Tree

In addition to the ones you create, you can also purchase ornaments for your tree that are Christ centered. Here’s an example of a nativity ornament. I have a lion on my tree to represent the Lord, the lion of Judah. Other examples include a nativity ornament that I got from Hobby Lobby and ornaments with words like “Joy” and “Hope,” which I know come from Him. The tree can have decor that points to Jesus too and further strengthen that connection.

Bake something together

You can make cookies in the shapes of Christmas things together or you can decorate cookies together. You can do things like creating little scenes with the food to reenact the birth of Jesus or the visit of the wisemen, for example.

Learn to play a Christmas Carol on an instrument

It’s fun to learn to play instruments together. This could be a good time to pick a Christmas Carol and learn to play it on guitar or piano or any instrument of choice. This makes the singing of Christmas carols even more fun!

Choose a new ornament together each year 

You could do this as a family or as individuals. When I first met my husband and saw his Christmas ornaments from his childhood, I was so impressed because his mother had gotten him to pick out a new ornament every single year and she had written the year on each one. I loved seeing each different ornament from every year of his childhood. It was so neat to see how what he picked changed over the years with his interest.

I thought this was such a great idea that I copied it for our family and we’ve done this with our kids. I also like the idea that when they grow up, they’ll have a starter set of ornaments for their tree, which is special and has historical value in our family because these ornaments have been with them their whole lives and they’ve been on our tree so they’ll be able to take a part of that with them when they go to their own homes as adults.

Color and Chat

Coloring together is a fun activity for all ages and is a simple and easy way to spend time together. I have created some Christ centered Christmas coloring pages that you can print and use for free. Color those or draw your own scenes of Christmas. You could draw or paint scenes inspired by the Bible’s account of Christ’s birth.

Just Keep it About Jesus

I hope these ideas have helped you get the wheels turning. Our culture has used movies, tv, books, marketing, songs, and more to distract us from the true meaning of Christmas. We have to make sure to point it back to Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life and Christmas is a wonderful opportunity every year to speak about Him and teach your kids about his birth and the gospel. Enjoy your Christ centered Christmas and share any ideas you have for keeping Christ in Christmas with me in the comments below!

Keeping Christ in Christmas Free Printable

Click the image below for your free “Keeping Christ in Christmas Bucket List.” Merry Christmas!