Family Christmas Book

A week or more before Christmas we begin having a mini-family night each evening. Each night, one member of the family has the opportunity to choose a poem or story about Christmas that he would like to read or tell, then we all sing together. On Christmas Eve we have a special program: each member of the family shares something he has found in a magazine, heard in a lesson, or saved from years past.

This collection, along with all the other treasures that show up at Christmas, became so large and disorganized that we finally came up with the idea of our Christmas book. We purchased an extra-large three-ring binder and covered it with green velvet. After sorting out all our materials, we found the following sections work for us: (1) Religious poetry and stories dealing with the true meaning of Christmas; (2) nonreligious poetry and stories dealing with Santa, Rudolph, etc.; (3) pictures of the family and Christmas tree for each year; (4) cards we make each year; (5) cards our friends make; (6) recipes we like for the holidays; (7) craft and gift instructions.

We use the other cards we receive to illustrate and decorate the pages. The children enjoy looking through our book and seeing how they appeared in previous years; they also like to illustrate the stories and poems. It’s expanding rapidly, and it won’t be long before each section will require its own binder. Jean S. Marshall, Provo, Utah