Christmas and family bonding time

It’s the time of the year again where the colours red, white, green and gold seems to be most potent!

A time where stores run out of gifts wraps, a period where everyone decides it’s time for a vacation.

People want to travel, children want to go back home to their parents and parents don’t want to spend the season alone.

It’s time of the year again.

You know what season it is don’t you?

It’s Christmas!

Of course, you don’t want to spend your holiday reading boring articles when there are more fun things to do.

But wait a minute! Can you spare 13 seconds to answer the following questions?

• Is Christmas the only time for a vacation?
• Your Christmas gift to your family is not the first this year right?
• Christmas is not just another “forced get together” at your home right?

What are your answers?

Are they positive enough to put back the smile on your face and keep up with preparation.

Or is it shocking enough to get you to pause and spend 5 minutes reading this article.

If it’s the latter, let’s do this together.

What’s the connection between Christmas and family bonding time?

No! Christmas is not a public holiday set aside for family rebuilding or bonding.

That’s far from it!

But if that’s what it means for your family that’s not entirely a bad thing.

December 25th is a random day chosen by Christians to mark the birth of our Saviour – Jesus Christ.

As Christians we can’t tell the exact day Jesus was born but we know it was during the winter season.

So voilà a date was picked!

Coincidentally, Christmas fell at a perfect time.

A time when businesses go on a break, schools are not in session – right at the edge of a new year’s dawn.

No school, no work for some families, it’s just the perfect opportunity to spend time together.

That’s how the connection between Christmas and family bonding time grew.

Is it wrong to mix Christmas and family bonding time?

Christmas for Christians is all about God, his love for us and the ultimate price he paid to redeem us- His son, Jesus.

It’s a period where we reflect on out relationship with our maker and how to live and walk in his love.

While reflecting on our relationship with God, the Holy Spirit reminds us of our immediate relationship with our earthly family.

The bible says “you can’t claim to love God and hate your brother”

Christmas reminds us of God’s love, but it also reminds us that we always have different prices to pay in our present relationships.

That’s why most people feel the need to be around family during this season.

It’s a time of celebration but also a time to rekindle love and remind each other than you love them as much as you love yourself.

There’s nothing wrong with mixing Christmas and family bonding time.

God wants us to build stronger love relationships and if Christmas reminds us of this message – he would be delighted.

But there’s a catch!

If Christmas is the only day in a year you can spare time for your family you’re heading for 3 disasters that you should avoid.

1. Christmas becomes a formality

There are 365/366 days in a year and you can only act like a family for one day?

That’s pretentious!

There’s a popular saying that “you are never too busy for the people you care about”

You can always spare time to create memories with your loved ones no matter how busy you are.

If you keep waiting for December 25th, everyone begins to look forward to that day just to get over it.

It becomes a “can it just end already event” filled with fake smiles and a family that’s barely hanging on.

To avoid this, you need to prioritize your family members – give them attention, choose random weekends to check on them, call, text, and always remind them that you loved them.

Bottom line: Christmas and family bonding time is not a formality. It is also not a ritual to get rid of all the time you weren’t there for your loved ones.

2. The fun and pure love is ruin

The feeling that comes with Christmas is beautiful, it’s a season filled with happiness, smiles, joy and celebration.

However, if Christmas is a one day family bonding ritual the entire fun is ruined.

The fun and love that’s meant to fill the air becomes the opposite.

Everyone is tense, conversations don’t flow, the thought in everyone’s head is “can we just go”.

Bottom line: Family bonding time might be planned but it’s never fun when it’s forced.

3.Your family grows to hate Christmas

If you keep up the forced family bonding time on Christmas you will end up with a family of Grinch.

At some point, every single member of your family will dread the holiday like a pandemic.

Just the mere thought of approaching December makes them sad whenever they think about the 25th day.

It’s gonna be hard to get …

2 reasons to mix family bonding time with Christmas

Christmas is a jolly time for everyone, what could be more fun than adding an intentional family bonding time to the mix?

• Everyone looks forward to it

Adding family bonding time to your Christmas celebration makes it more special.

It’s already a special day for Christians, we celebrate God’s love for us.

While we reflect on God’s love, we follow his example by recreating his love through our family bonding time.

Your kids might be too young to understand God’s love but they’ll always remember how special Christmas is at home.

Everyone in your family will anticipate the Christmas season because it’s not just theory but it’s practical.

• A generational family tradition is born

“Train up in the Lord and when he is old, he will not depart from it Pro 22:6”

The bible says it all! Children learn more from what you do than what you say.

Your words have power but actions are replicable.

If you start combining Christmas and family bonding time in the right way, your kids will pick up this tradition.

Their kids too and before long If becomes a long standing tradition.

Conclusion

Christmas and family bonding time is a perfect duo, it’s like icing on cake.

You can spice up your holiday season by making memories with your family.

Be intentional about it, tell your family, indulge their anticipation and ensure you exceed their expectations.

It doesn’t have to be grand but it must be special, it’s a special season after all.