Lights

I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

John 12:46 (ESV)

Preschool Activities
I mentioned a few days ago (I is for Ice Skating) the outdoor ice rink at the Charlotte Motor Speedway this time of year. The real star of the Speedway Christmas however is the lightshow - 3 million twinkling Christmas lights in the shape of race cars and snowflakes and American flags. You just can't decorate for Christmas without a string of lights or two.

Little man and I were feeling particularly festive and crafty today, so I decided we'd to try to recreate a Christmas lights craft I'd seen on Pinterest (what did we do before Pinterest). I provided some construction paper and the ink pad. At first he didn't want to touch the ink. But I showed him how to leave his fingerprints on the paper and he was excited to go from there. I didn't provide any instruction on where the fingerprints should go, so we ended up with this tangle of lights and that feels pretty authentic to me. 

Family Activities
There are so many times when decorating for Christmas that we exclude the kids. Hanging the lights, placing fragile nativity pieces, climbing up into the attic just to find everything, and when that one light in the strand goes out and the whole middle of the tree is dark, I don't always feel so joyous about letting little hands help.

At the same time, I know how happy I feel sitting in the glow of the Christmas tree. So today, I went out of my way to make the decorations accessible to the kids. We hung lights in their bedroom. I let them play with the nativity window clings and snowman fridge magnets without feeling the need to rearrange everything when they were done. Then after dinner we went for a stroll through our neighborhood to see all our neighbor's Christmas decorations. Beautiful!

Service Activities
Light up someone's whole day.  Smile at everyone you pass today.

Snacks
Popcorn with yellow M&Ms or sprinkles.

Songs
Deck the Halls
Shine on Us
 
Books
The Christmas Candle, by Richard Paul Evans
Lights of Christmas, by Kimberly Souther
Christmas Lights, by Marion Dane Bauer