What does Christmas really mean? It’s not really about the stories or the traditions. It’s certainly not about the shopping or the food.  Christmas is about putting others before ourselves – giving to others so that makes today’s MomDot Christmas Party topic one of my favorites so far:

Do you volunteer during the Holidays?  What organizations do you donate your time to?  How do you teach your children the true meaning of the holidays?

Instead of focusing on one big organization, we divide our time through several smaller local charities.  My daughter and her dance/twirling class go to all of the local nursing homes and perform to holiday music. For both Thanksgiving and Christmas we also support multiple food and toy drives as well as a coat drive for those who are less fortunate than we are.  And then there’s the Salvation Army men at the front of all the local stores ringing their bells.  I actually make sure to carry cash and change during the holiday season so that we don’t pass a one without making a donation.  Cameron doesn’t even think twice now.  She knows that we’ll be dropping some change or a couple dollars in every one that we pass. And finally, we have an adopt an angel tree at school. Teachers fill out an angel for any student they teach that they feel will not have a Christmas. The tree does not have a name, only a description of the child – their sizes, likes, etc.  We go each year and pick an angel off of that tree and purchase items for them.  This is an extra special chance for me to show Cameron that we support our community.

So how do you teach your children the true meaning of the holidays?  Go blog about it and post your link at Momdot.  I can’t wait to read these stories.