We did something in our home on Monday night that turned out so well, I thought I’d share it with any of you who celebrate the birth of Christ.
In Church on Sunday, a sister in our congregation talked about how her dad wrapped a box up at Christmas time, and whenever the kids did something Christ-like, they would write it on a paper and put it into the present for Jesus.
Well, I thought this sounded fabulous, and decided to make it a new Christmas tradition in our home!
I found a box that already had a small opening in the bottom, taped up the top, wrapped it really pretty, then cut the paper where the small opening was. Then I wrote “To Jesus” on the top, and taped a card that has baby Jesus on it.
I also cut 3 or 4 blank pieces of paper into rectangles (2 1/2 inches by 4 1/4), put them along with a couple of pens into a small can I had. I tied a big red bow on it for fun.
To start the lesson, I had my two older boys read the quote by Thomas S. Monson that says, “What will you and I give for Christmas this year? Let us in our lives give to our Lord and Savior the gift of gratitude by living his teachings and following in His footsteps.” (I printed off the free quote found on Becky Higgins’ blog—go about half way down the page and look on the right side bar for it.)
We then talked about what that meant in little kid terms, “What IS the best thing YOU can give for Christmas?, “What is the gift of gratitude?”, “What are some of the things that Jesus taught us?”, “What are some things we can give to Jesus this year for Christmas?”.
After we talked about what the quote meant, I showed the kids the present I had made, explained what we were going to be doing, and then showed them the can and they loved the idea!!! We made the rule that we can fill out a paper for something you did for someone else, or if someone does something for you.
A few days later, we are hearing a lot of, “Mom, I did_____, can I fill out a paper?”, or “_____ did ______ for me, can I write that down?”. Even my 2 year old twins love doing this! When I see them do something nice for someone, I tell them thank you and say that we should write it and give it to Jesus. They run to the box and love to put their paper in!
It’s even helping me too…today when I got stuck in line at the store with a new cashier who was going SLOW, I decided I’d be patient instead of getting all annoyed that I got in the slow line. And yes, I wrote that down and gave it to Jesus! 
I’m seriously loving this, and so excited to make it a yearly tradition. I’m planning on doing something with the papers—either keeping them and putting them in something, taking pictures of them, or at least typing up our gifts to Christ. I think it will be so fun to look back on our gifts to Jesus Christ!
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