The Reason For The Season Challenge; Are You Ready For It?

I’m challenging myself this year for the Advent/Christmas season. I’m calling it “The Reason For The Season Challenge”, and I’m challenging you (that’s right, I said YOU) to join me!

the reason for the season challenge

Christmas seems to be in overdrive! People may as well start saying “Merry Hallow-Thanks-Mas” for as much thought as anyone puts into what the holidays really mean. I’m sure you’ve all heard the popular phrases “Jesus is the Reason For The Season” and “Keep Christ In Christmas.” Well today, I’m challenging you to actually do so!

I’ve set a goal for our family this holiday season: For every 1 thing that we do to celebrate the season that purely seasonal, we are going to do at least 1 thing that points to the true meaning of the season.

Let me give you some examples: If we sing “Jingle Bells”, we will also sing “Silent Night.” If we make special holiday hot chocolate, we will drink it while reading a story about Baby Jesus. As we buy gifts for others this season, we will remember that the best gift we can give them is our prayers. If we spend the afternoon as a family cutting down a Christmas tree, we will also spend an evening together at a live nativity. For each Santa decoration that goes up, a nativity set will also be displayed. You get the picture!

I designed some Reason For The Season Challenge downloads to go with the challenge. They’re designed to help you keep track of your holiday season. For each seasonal activity you do with your family, you’re going to decide if it’s “Merry” or “Bright.” The “Merry” activities are the things you do for the pure merriment of the season. The “Bright” activities you do point to the true meaning of the season, as did the bright star in the sky that pointed to our Savior!

the merry and bright advent challeng printable

Here’s an alternative to the list- In the tree download, you write and “Merry” activity you do on a ball on the Christmas tree. For each “Bright” activity you do, write it on a star. Make sure you’re filling in at least as many stars as balls, and you’re on your way to keeping Christmas in check this year!

the reason for the season challenge download

Now, I know what you’re thinking- “Lacy, how am I going to pull this off?” Well, I’m going to hold your hand every step of the way! I have tons of resources to fill your Advent/Christmas season with the true Joy of Christmas! Check out my Advent/Christmas resource page for tons of ideas to get you going! Here are some specific ideas to help you start this season off right!

  • Celebrate St. Nicholas day
  • Celebrate St. Lucy’s feast day
  • Make some charitable donations
  • Watch religious-themed Christmas movies
  • Sing religious-themed Christmas songs
  • Send religious Christmas cards
  • Choose angels, candy canes, and stars over snowmen, reindeer, and elves whenever possible
  • Start collecting religious themed decorations, CD’s, etc so over time, your collection becomes balanced
  • Spend time in prayer
  • Do extra good deeds during Advent

If you feel very overwhelmed by the holidays, I would encourage you to take a look at my Advent/Christmas Planner ebook. It will help you organize your plans from crafting, shopping, making Christmas dinner, to celebrating feast days throughout the season. It is certainly not too late!

The Advent Christmas Planner from Catholic Icing

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One way I accomplish keeping things in balance is by converting the “Merry” to the “Bright”. Here are some examples: Make nativity shaped Christmas cookies rather than cookies shaped like snowmen or bells. When you send out Christmas cards, make sure they have a religious theme or picture. When you’re buying Christmas picture books, tend toward the religious themed books, and so on and so forth.

Ok, I think we’re ready to get started! Research shows that people who strive to change habits in groups are more successful than those who try it alone (example: joining Weight Watchers rather than going on a lone diet, going to AA, etc) so we are going to support each other as a community! It’s all about accountability. I am going to be holding myself accountable to the Reason For The Season Challenge, and I’ll be checking in with all of you each Monday morning on facebook. I’ll share how things have been going for me, and all of you can chime in with how your challenge has been going for you.

In-between Mondays, the printable pages I provided above should help to keep you on track. 😉

Download The Printable Pages Here!!!

the reason for the season challenge printable

Another way to hold yourself accountable to completing this challenge is by telling your friends and family that you’re participating. Therefore, I’m also providing this image that’s the perfect size for a facebook cover picture. This would be an easy way to let everyone know what your plan is for this Advent/Christmas season. Just be sure to share this link in the description so they can also read about the challenge.

Click the picture to enlarge and right click to save it. Then you can upload it as your cover picture.

facebook cover image for the reason for the season challenge

Feel free to use the images for this challenge on facebook, your blog, or anywhere you would like. Go tell it on the mountain! We are doing this! We are going to keep things in balance this year, and Baby Jesus’ thunder will not be stolen! 🙂

So what are you waiting for? Let’s get started! Sign up to join The Reason For The Season Challenge in the comments. This way, we can start our accountability community and build each other up! 🙂

Comments

  1. I love this idea. Great reminders to stay on track toward Jesus!

  2. I really like that tug of war pic. It speaks volumes!

  3. Oh, I love this idea!! My 5-year-old and I were just talking about how the Christmas season seems to be a big rush to buy (her words were something of buy, buy, buy instead of what Christmas is really about). One thing I always try to do is have my shopping mostly done by Thanksgiving so I can focus on the real reason for the season.

  4. This is SO awesome! Thank you so much. The cover photo is so great! Thanks for making it easy for us. I just shared my Advent plan on my blog. Of course you are mentioned in there, as you are many times. 😉 thank you for all you do!
    God bless,
    Jen

  5. Lacy, Thanks for this wonderful website! Love love love it! I decorate my house with pink and purple during advent. I put up the tree but no lighting it before cmas eve. we only put one jesse tree ornament on it each day during advent. we sing a lot of o come o come Emmanuel (never silent night till cmas eve). baby Jesus is not in any of the manager scenes (Nor the wise men). we have cake and ice cream and sing Happy birthday on cmas eve. and just like Jesus got 3 gifts from the wise men that is how many each of my children get. when i grew up the tree got put up on cmas eve! Happy Advent!

  6. I am so in. This is a great idea!

  7. I am in! This is a truly awesome idea and I love it!

  8. Just saw this. What a cute idea. We focus on Advent all throughout this season and this will encourage us to do so more.

  9. I have been using ideas from your site for about a year with my (non-Catholic) Children’s Church class. There have been so many great concepts–but this one is head and shoulders above the rest! I cannot wait to give my kids this challenge tomorrow morning! Keep up the good work.

  10. What a great post. I love your first image, especially the sign pointing to Bethlehem!

  11. to me… this is an eye-opener. The more I get involved with our beautiful catholic traditions, the more I learn their connection to the Holy Trinity, Mother Mary and the angels and saints. With the right words and images, traditions are more meaningful with our kids!