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First Congregational Church of Bethel203-743-1877

December Family Newsletter

Can you feel it? Christmas is in the air! This post-Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas season brings with it some consistent expectations, doesn’t it? It is marked by the beginnings of winter, the rush and bustle of preparing for holiday celebrations and the chaos of wrapping up the end of a busy year. There is A LOT that goes on in this season! Yet, probably the most important thing that happens, certainly for kids and especially for those of us who are Christ-followers, is the momentum that builds as we inch closer to Christmas.

During this Advent season, I hope that you can share family time together celebrating old traditions or making new ones. Take some time to sing some Christmas songs together, whether in the car or after a meal, or Away in the Manger at bedtime to a little one.

Join us Sunday mornings at 10 AM and on Christmas Eve for a special service at 5 PM, or listen to a service on Facebook at "First Congregational Church of Bethel."

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Claudia Anderson ([email protected])

Youth Advisor
Family Ideas for Serving Others at Christmas
Jim Burns -President of HomeWord and Executive Director of the HomeWord Center for Youth and Family at Azusa Pacific University
It's recorded in Matthew's Gospel, (Matthew 10:8) that Jesus said, "Freely you have received; freely give." Though our lives may not always be everything we hope for them to be, God has richly blessed each one of us. One of the ways we can demonstrate that we are grateful to God for his many blessings is to help others.

Christmastime provides an opportunity for your family to roll up your sleeves and get involved in helping to meet the needs of others in your community -- showing them the light and love of Christ. Here are some family ideas for reaching out and helping others during the Christmas season:

1. Donate your family's time to help out at a food kitchen or a food bank.

2. Take your family to visit someone you know who lives at a nursing home, who lives alone, or is confined at home because of poor health.

3. Invite neighbors who don't have plans to join your family for Christmas dinner.

4. Provide some (or all) of the Christmas dinner groceries for a needy family in your community. Take the family along to make the delivery.

5. Have your family gather winter clothes and coats that don't fit any longer, or are no longer wanted or needed -- and distribute them to homeless people in your area -- or deliver them to a local shelter.

6. Make some bag lunches and take your family into the community to distribute them to homeless people in your area. (Make sure ahead of time that your local authorities allow this type of distribution.)

7. Make more Christmas treats than you need for your holiday meals. As a family, deliver extras to the neighbors or to a needy family in your area.

8. Find an elderly person in your area that could use some help at the grocery store. Better yet, invite them to your home for a special holiday meal.

9. Find a family in your area that could use some help to take care of fall yard cleanup, basic repair or weatherization around their home. Buy the needed materials and get to work as a family!

10. Invite a neighbor's family over to your home for a simple, fun family game night.
Bring your kids to see Santa (and the Grinch) on December 11th!
Making the Most of Your Family's Christmas
Jim Burns -President of HomeWord and Executive Director of the HomeWord Center for Youth and Family at Azusa Pacific University
It's Christmastime and it's time to celebrate! But, for many parents, just the thought of the season makes them want to scream "Bah hum-bug!" Why? It's because the holidays can be hectic and just plain hard to deal with. Christmas shopping, school and church pageants, and the various Christmas festivities can cause us a lot of stress! But here's the good news -- there is a remedy for getting beyond the "Bah hum-bug!" By reducing your family's stress levels, you can make the most of your family's Christmas this year! Here's how:

1. Refresh. Revisit some old family traditions that you haven't enjoyed in awhile and take the initiative to create some new ones. Some of the previous generations did a better job than we do with building family traditions. Traditions are important for families because they provide opportunities to keep your family legacy going. From the simple to the silly to the sentimental, traditions can create meaningful memories. As a parent, one of your jobs is to look for ways to promote special moments and traditions for your family -- ones that will create special family memories that your kids will keep forever.

2. Restore. Christmastime is a great time to reestablish connections with friends and family members with whom you've lost touch. Make a goal of restoring connection with at least one person or family member this year.

3. Relax. There are only so many hours in the day, so much money at your discretion, and only so much of "you" to go around. Well, it is my profound privilege to give you permission to not attend every Christmas pageant featuring a distant relative of yours, and when you've maxed out your gift-purchasing budget, please know that it's perfectly okay to say, "Enough. Our shopping is done."

4. Rejoice. And again I say, "Rejoice!" We're celebrating the birth of our Savior -- our whole reason for living! What kind of message do we send to an unbelieving world if we're cranky, hassled, and sad during Christmastime? Of all people, we should be the ones leading the celebrations! So enjoy the season and watch how many people wonder why you're so happy!