Family Group Christmas Celebration

Family Group Christmas Celebration - in the Church Annexe

I hosted my first Christmas Party last night. It was for our Family Group with near full attendance of all families apart from one, so over twenty people plus children. As soon as I found out I was going to host, I began thinking through the different menu, decorations and activities. 

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved the small details, finding the perfect creative things to reflect the season, choosing the prettiest food items to display on the table. 

Yet amidst all my planning, its too easy for me to shift my gaze from the birth of Jesus to the details and intricacies of planning my first Christmas party. I find myself influenced by what I see on Pinterst what culture says should shape my vision of decorating and what I selfishly want for “my party”. 

Pinterest spurs me to obsess over finding the perfect table pieces and place settings. Articles about people who fall victim to the festive blues because of no reality variance allowance, making me want to turn inward and surround myself with people who believe and think like me. My desire to impress and make sure perfectionism is in full swing shines through without effort. Even the task at been hostesses comes with an invisible job description. 

Yet, all of that leaves me feeling empty and unsatisfied. I find myself in need of a source of Christmas inspiration that reminds me to look outward as I plan, prepare, bake and host. And what better place to look for inspiration than the Nativity itself?

(This was one of the table centre pieces.. we had seven tables, each which I did a different piece on them )

The Nativity breaks through the noise that distracts and motivates me and gives me a beautiful story to group my Christmas plans. The Nativity informs who I should have at my table and how I should think about hosting. As I look to the Nativity scene and the coming of the Magi, I see a woman, shepherds and Gentiles. These aren’t the people the Israelites thought would celebrate the long awaited coming of the Messiah. They were the devalued, the poor and the outsiders. 

The coming of Jesus moves me towards humility and love. If the Son of God came in a stable without fanfare, how might I embrace the humility in my planning and hosting? I will still decorate, after all this helps set up the atmosphere to embrace that joy like all those around when Jesus was born. While I decorate, create, bake.. all those activities that need to be done, I will do them for the joy I find in them instead of trying ti impress or cultivate a certain reputation. 

One Christmas carol describes the coming of Jesus in this way - 

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour, All for love’s sake becomes poor;

Thrones for a manger list surrender, Sapphire-paved courts for stable floor. 

Thou who wast rich beyond all spender, All for love’s sake becomes poor. 

While I was planning my Christmas event, I had a thought that it was unfortunate that I never did this while back in New Zealand, when what I had within grasping for the best I could afford, would be a wider range and more availability. Its an easy trap to fall into this line of thinking, when disappointment can grow with my means. Christmas is certainly a time for celebrating well and enjoying the goodness of God’s gifts, but the birth of Jesus compels me to remember the splendour he left in heaven to enter this earth and live with us. His poverty moves me toward love and humility as I draw people into our celebration together. 

The Nativity subverts who I think I should invite to the Christmas table and beckons me to look outside of myself and our economic, social and racial “bubbles”. 

Im left asking.. how might I ground myself in the love and humility I see in the Nativity? This will certainly look different for everyone, yet for me its a reminder to set a limit to the Christmas festivities and use those means with joy instead of frustration, remembering that the Son of God came into our world in a stable. Maybe simply need to dwell on the love and humility of Christ and let that become my motivation for all my Christmas activities. 

This Christmas, I want to capture the glory, reverence and joy of the holiday instead of letting social influence, the voices of our culture and possibly even selfish desire for perfectionism, shape or take form in the activities. Through looking to the Nativity, I’m given a beautiful story that not only defines my faith but can also shape who and how I should host around the table. 

….. the celebrations came to full fruition, with all the table settings placed, the children’s arts, crafts and movie set, along with places for the gifts to exchange in a game of Kristkindle the room was ready to full with joy and laughs. That it did, people arrived, children sat and played, while the adults caught up on the stories of each ones journey in the past month or two. The air was light, playful, delight to be together to have a moment in celebration as one family. 

The food was traditional, crackers bang with jokes been told, hats worn and small toys placed into the lolly boxes to take home followed by more play.

Finally the time to open gifts, the children had allocated names to purchase for, making the gifts a little more personalised to ensure they got to take something that was suitable and allowed them to join in the fun of the process to give the gift. For the adults, we made it into a game, reading a story with the words left and right mentioned, the gifts making the round of the table, passing between  each other. A few times we had to stop, let the gifts be caught up with those who got easily confused what was their left and right. Laughter beamed, the children danced around to the christmas cheer that was playing in the backdrop. 

As the night started to come to a close, we were able to leave the setting for the next family group celebrating their Christmas gathering the next day. This for me was a delight, as not only we helped the next family group with decorating, yet we helped the families to just come share around the table and leave without worrying about the task of clearing. I know that I will have a few helping hands to pack up, returning the items to their beloved owners and packing away the scene until another day. 

Overall it was a wonderful celebration, from the beginning to the creating, the time spent reflecting and feeling my way on the journey of wanting a very ‘secular’ party with the contrasting hit against my inner moral drive, of wanting to still remember the reason for the season!