Do you remember what it was like to wait for Christmas as a kid? It seemed like several years between each December. Christmas wasn’t just a day, it was an event! I can still chronicle many years by remembering the Christmas holiday.

For kids, special days and holidays are the biggest events of their lives. They may not remember the books we read or the songs we played during the year. But they will remember eating turkey dinner at Grandma’s every year, they’ll remember each ornament on the tree, the spot you always placed the Easter Basket and the rest of your holiday traditions.

As a mom looking for ways to impress God’s Word on my kids’ heart, I have discovered that Christmas and Easter are my biggest and most flamboyant vehicle to teach my kids about God.

Not only are these holidays the crux of our Christian faith, they are HUGE in our culture. Stores are decorated, special songs are played, television specials are shown and life takes on a new little sparkly twist during these seasons.

It’s the perfect means for turning my bumbling and small ideas into big memories and foundational teaching for my kids. This past Easter (or Resurrection Sunday as we call it), we didn’t have Easter Baskets but placed rocks into baskets to represent our sins. After being covered in a red cloth to represent Jesus’ blood, we discovered our sins removed and the baskets full of gifts.

We’ve acted out Palm Sunday, we’ve done science experiments to show how Jesus took our sins upon Himself, we’ve made food and even recreated the garden and tomb to show and cement in my kids’ hearts what Jesus did for them in those 3 days. (See all our Resurrection Day ideas!)

Christmas is almost even easier because we usually celebrate it for a whole month! When was the last time you spent 24 days in a row talking to your children about one story in the Bible? Listening to songs EVEN AT THE GROCERY STORE about Him and His love for us? Did service projects in His name multiple times in a month? When else do you get to watch movies (on cable!), read books and color pictures all about one story in the Bible—for weeks on end?

You don’t even have to get creative at Christmas to be able to teach kids’ about Jesus birth! It’s everywhere!

I am so passionate about using Easter and Christmas as BIG BIG events in a child’s life not only for memory-making, and family time but because it’s an awesome, easy, amazing and huge celebration of our God and King.

To go along with this, I am SO excited (and crazy nervous) to announce that I’ve written an ebook for Christmas this year! The day after Thanksgiving (yes, Black Friday!), I’ll be releasing an Advent experience for you and your family. It’s designed for preschoolers through early elementary kids and will be an adventure similar to a Jesse Tree—a daily ornament and talking points to help you easily but also flamboyantly leverage the most exciting month of a kids’ year for our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ! {It’s here! Get Truth in the Tinsel now!}

I can’t wait to share it with you, I’ve got some fun ideas to go along with the ebook and it’s release. Plus, I’m excited to do it with my own children this year. We can do it together! So, if you’re not subscribed, go ahead and do so! I don’t want you to miss out on this fun adventure!

How do you use holidays to teach kids God’s Word?

photo source: mukumbura

***Impress Your Kids has some new digs at ohAmanda.com! Come visit us there for all the Impress Your Kids archives and all our new posts–including our Easter newsblast with fabulous tips for celebrating a meaningful Easter with your kids!***