While Advent is one of my favorite seasons of the year, I struggle intensely with the consumerism and commercialization of the holiday. Black Friday in America wigs me out, and even though we don't have this in Germany, there are still ads everywhere telling you what you need. I find that as a spiritual mentor of my children and others, I really have to plan and make an effort to communicate a different message to the children around me. And one way to do this is to get children thinking about other people . . .
Weihnachten im Schuhkarton (literally "Christmas in a Shoebox") aka Operation Christmas Child in the States is a great way to help our kids think about others. If you're not familiar with it, you pack a shoe box for a child of a certain age with school supplies, hygiene products, winter accessories, small toys and candy. Geschenke der Hoffnung here in Germany and Samaritan's Purse in the US then send the shoe boxes to a child in a second or third world country. (Most of our shoes boxes in Germany go to poorer regions in Eastern Europe.)
The only catch is that you have to start thinking about it early. This year we got our act together before Thanksgiving and invited several three other families to join us for brunch and packing shoe boxes. Our children drew pictures and wrote Christmas greetings, and we printed out photos of each family to include in the boxes.
Naturally, children want to know why we are doing this and it provides opportunities for deeper conversations about how children in other parts of the world live. It can be difficult for younger children to grasp the idea of preparing a box for someone they don't know, so I always have them pick out the gifts in the store to more personally involve them. Then, when they were younger, I would explain that although we didn't know the name of the child we were preparing this for, God knew his or her name and everything about that child. Then, we would pray for God to bless him or her.
Weihnachten im Schuhkarton (literally "Christmas in a Shoebox") aka Operation Christmas Child in the States is a great way to help our kids think about others. If you're not familiar with it, you pack a shoe box for a child of a certain age with school supplies, hygiene products, winter accessories, small toys and candy. Geschenke der Hoffnung here in Germany and Samaritan's Purse in the US then send the shoe boxes to a child in a second or third world country. (Most of our shoes boxes in Germany go to poorer regions in Eastern Europe.)
The only catch is that you have to start thinking about it early. This year we got our act together before Thanksgiving and invited several three other families to join us for brunch and packing shoe boxes. Our children drew pictures and wrote Christmas greetings, and we printed out photos of each family to include in the boxes.
Naturally, children want to know why we are doing this and it provides opportunities for deeper conversations about how children in other parts of the world live. It can be difficult for younger children to grasp the idea of preparing a box for someone they don't know, so I always have them pick out the gifts in the store to more personally involve them. Then, when they were younger, I would explain that although we didn't know the name of the child we were preparing this for, God knew his or her name and everything about that child. Then, we would pray for God to bless him or her.
What are ways that you fight the consumer-mentality and help your children re-focus during Advent?
Linked to Catholic Icing
