Here’s a little bonus post on the day before the night before Christmas. I wrote this a few weeks ago for the Orange Parents blog and thought it might help us all land Christmas a little bit better this year.
Christmas is a bit nerve-wracking, isn’t it? I mean the stakes are high, and you’ve accumulated a few bad experiences along the way to remind you that things don’t always go as planned.
Despite our best intentions, Christmas is a high stress season with so much at stake. To raise the tension a little further, this may be your 35th Christmas, but it might only be your daughter’s fifth. I need to remind myself all the time that I’m writing the story of my kids’ childhood every day.
And we only get about 18 of these holidays before our kids grow up and leave home. So each one matters. Each Christmas is important. It might be just one more holiday for us grown-ups (special, as it is), but for kids, well, they’re like kids at Christmas.
So, how do you make Christmas better this year?
Sometimes the best way to figure out what works is to pay attention to what doesn’t work. In the spirit of Christmas, we thought we’d help. Here’s a list of 12 things guaranteed to help make Christmas miserable.
1. Head into Christmas exhausted, exposing your temper and nerves to everyonee.
2. Speak badly about other family members when they’re not in the room.
3. Overspend this Christmas trying to impress your kids with stuff they’ll throw away two years from now anyway.
4. Ignore the family members and neighbours who usually get ignored at this time of year anyway.
5. Focus the kids on what they’ll get for Christmas—not on what they could give.
6. Leave everything to the last minute so the tension runs high in the moments you should be making great memories.
7. If you share custody of your kids, be greedy in the time you want with the kids and try to outspend and outdo your ex.
8. Do nothing for the poor. Make it all about you and your wants.
9. Focus on what you don’t have, not on what you do have.
10. Obsess about the way your house looks and how perfect the meal needs to be.
11. Argue a lot over small things.
12. Let the celebration of Jesus end at church.
Now of course, if you want a wonderful Christmas, just do the opposite.
What’s helped you make Christmas great over the years? Anything else that ruined it?
- Carey
in Barrie, Connexus, Current Affairs, Orillia, Vision and Purpose
...because we don't want you to miss out.
We have a really fun (and unusual) element planned for the first few minutes of the service that involves a few logistics...and we won't be able to seat anyone who arrives late until the 10 minute mark of the service. We don't want you to be stuck in the hallways!
Doors will open to our services 30 minutes before the service begins... keep reading
in Barrie, Connexus, Current Affairs, Featured Article, Orillia, Vision and Purpose
I of the things I love most about Connexus is how generous you are!
On Sunday we took up our Thrive Christmas offering. You know what you did? You gave over $65,000 on Sunday to Thrive Christmas. That means we're well on our way to reaching our goal of $80,000 to benefit the homeless in Orillia, the hungry in Barrie and helping other churches plant churches that unchurched... keep reading
in Barrie, Connexus, Featured Article, New Series, Orillia, Vision and Purpose
So it's almost here. And we are SO EXCITED!
This Sunday we are wrapping up Hotseat in Orillia and lauching our mini-Christmas series in Barrie called Christmas in Reverse.
Plus at both campuses we're receiving the Thrive Christmas Offering at the end of the service, our over-and-above regular giving offering to benefit others. Can't wait for all of us to put our hearts... keep reading
in Barrie, Connexus, Current Affairs, Featured Article, Leadership Community, Orillia, Vision and Purpose
You did so much last year...are you ready to do it again, but this time to help us help others?
On Sunday, we're receiving our Thrive Christmas Offering. The Thrive Christmas offering goes to three worth causes:
The Barrie Food Bank...helping feed families in Barrie.
The Lighthouse Christian Men's Shelter...helping shelter homeless men in Orillia.
Other... keep reading
