The picture book I’m sharing today can inspire a new Christmas family tradition. I hope it does! It is by Jill Hardie and illustrated by Christine Kornacki.

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. His mom tells him that before they open it, they have to fill it up. 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 this same tradition right away!

What a great idea! I can see how fun it would be, after all the gifts are open on Christmas morning, to open the Sparkle Box and one by one review the acts of service your family performed during the past month, or even the past year. What a wonderful thing to do to end the gift-opening spree by focusing on following Christ with gifts of service family members have recently given to Him by serving others. This conversation could lead to even more sharing about how service received or rendered changed the course of one’s day or even life. Hopefully it will inspire family members to think about acts of service they will give in the coming year. As the Book of Mormon says, “…when you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God.” (Mosiah 2:17) You can share with your family and remind yourself that these acts of service don’t have to be anything big, it’s nice if they are, but they can just be simple things that you feel drawn to do that might take just a tiny bit more effort out of what you are already doing.

I started this family tradition a few years ago, but I tweaked it a bit by spreading out the conversation throughout the days preceding Christmas. Every night as we gathered for family prayer, I asked the family to share something that happened to them that day where they felt touched by someone serving them or sometime 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 also give each person something sweet like a cookie or a piece of fruit as you talk, especially if the neighbors dropped by with 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 picture books and tradition ideas, see my other website here, and scroll down to the that says “December.”

You can also get a PDF list of picture books here. Happy Advent and Merry Christmas!

For short Christmas stories to share with your family, get my family devotionals ebook here and turn to the December section.