Everywhere at this time of year, you hear and read about the hurry of the holidays. The stress. The depression. The bills.

Where in all of this is the joy, peace, and celebration of the birth of Jesus?

I’ll admit, it can become a bit harried. So I decided when my boys were small that we would not simply tear open a mass of presents on Christmas morning, eat a huge meal and then fall into a stupor, wistfully realizing that it was already time to clean up the piles of wrapping and take down all the decorations. Oh, yeah … and glory to the newborn king somewhere in there.

When I was growing up, my Christmas holiday always started with an advent calendar. Advent simply means, “It is coming” — in this case, the birth of Christ. We did not have an Advent calendar that you buy, but one that my moma and I made from felt and hung up each year. The pockets were filled with candies for each of us (that is, my parents and me) and it was a wonderful way to count down the days until Christmas.

When I got married, that calendar came with me, but was soon too small for my family. You can purchase really lovely Advent calendars, but with most of them, only one person gets to open something each day. I wanted all five of us to be able to share the excitement. So, I made my own of felt, with pockets big enough for five pieces of candy.

Felt is inexpensive and can be purchased off a bolt in the fabric section of many stores. I chose green felt, then bought small sheets (normally less than $1 each) in other colors to make embellishments. You can write on felt with permanent markers, and as an added benefit, it does not need to be sewn: hot glue is your best friend when working with felt. I attached the calendar to a wooden dowel and added a string for hanging it. My calendar also features important days — like December birthdays — so we can look forward to those in advance. To make the pockets, I put five small candies (like Hershey’s kisses or baby candy bars) under a piece of felt to see how big my pockets needed to be to hold them all. Turns out that the space was almost exactly the size of a vitamin bottle. I could glue down one side, tuck in the bottle, and glue down the other side, knowing that I would have a pouch with the right capacity.

We used our calendar for many years, and the tradition is not going away any time soon. Now I only have one boy at home, but I have already bought our Advent candy!

Another thing that marks the first day of December at our house is putting up the nativity. I had never heard of The Elf on the Shelf all those years ago. Instead, Mary and Joseph “arrive” at the stable at the beginning of the month. On Christmas Eve, one of our family reads the story of Jesus’s birth from the Bible. The next morning, on Christmas day, Baby Jesus and the shepherds appear in the nativity. And the poor wise men? Well, they wander through the house, room by room, until they finally arrive at the stable in January.

We celebrate Epiphany on January 6th. It is historically the time when the wise men were supposed to have finally reached Jesus. By now Christmas is over, our tree has been taken down, some presents have already been forgotten. But the nativity is still out, and we are still remembering the Savior’s birth. The wise men reach the manger after their long journey, and we celebrate with a Mediterranean-style meal: all types of olives, flat breads, hummus, figs, dates, and I will often get lamb gyros to bring home for the dinner.

When the boys were small, if it was not too cold outside, we would sometimes go outside and lay on the ground in sleeping bags and look at the stars. We would talk about the courage and determination it would take to use your riches to go on a journey, unsure of where it would take you or how long it would last. And what devotion to travel all that way, through perils and hardships, to bring gifts worthy of a king to a baby born in a barn. I would often ask, Would you spend your riches and your time to find that baby?

What devotion to travel all that way, through perils and hardships, to bring gifts worthy of a king to a baby born in a barn. Would you spend your riches and your time to find that baby? Click To Tweet

So the great question this Christmas season is not what to get your mother-in-law, or what to serve for a special dinner. It is this: are you willing to slow down and take your heart on a month-long journey to see a babe in a lowly manger? Will you give your time and effort to make sure that your children remember him — not just in this season, but all year round?

May your Christmas be blessed with the presence of Him who was born to save us all.