Here’s a great new family tradition for Christmas to encourage Christ-like service and love. Get the above book by buying it or borrowing it from your local public library. If your local public library doesn’t have it, ask your librarian to get it through interlibrary loan. Start now so you can have it before Christmas is over and participate in the activity that it involves.

This book tells the story of a boy named Sam. He notices a sparkly box on the mantel in the days leading up to Christmas. On Christmas Day, his family opens up the box. Inside it are slips of paper, upon which are written acts of service his family did throughout the preceding weeks. His parents tell him that these acts of service are his family’s gift to Jesus. The book even comes with a Sparkle Box so you can start your own tradition right away.

What a great idea! I can see how fun it would be, after all the gifts are open, to open the Sparkle Box and one by one review the acts of service your family performed and talk about them, to end the gift-opening spree focusing on following Christ. This conversation could lead to more talking about how service received or rendered changed the course of one’s day or even life.

I started this tradition last year but I added a twist. Every night as we gathered for family prayers, I asked the family to share something that happened to them that day where they felt touched by someone serving them or some time in the day where they felt the sweet love of God. Some people might have a hard time noticing that, so you might use different language, by saying something like, “When did you feel some sparkle in your life today? Who added sparkle to your life? How did you add sparkle to someone else’s life?” Then write those comments down, put them in the box, and review on Christmas Day. To emphasize the sweetness of God’s love touching people’s lives you could give each person something sweet like a cookie or a piece of fruit as you talk, especially if the neighbors dropped by a holiday treat that day.

(Hint: If you can’t find the book you could just tell the basic story as I’ve shared above and get a gold-colored box from a craft store like Hobby Lobby.)

For more Christmas family tradition ideas, see my other website here, and scroll down to the heading that says, “Activities: About Hannukah and Christmas.”