Finding Joy during the Christmas Season

Christmas is the highlight of the year for many central Florida youth, especially after a long year of managing the pandemic. Parents feel that all the hard work and preparation that go into this season of the year become worth it when they see the joy that comes into a child’s eyes on Christmas Day.

According to Linda and Richard Eyre, authors of Teaching Your Children Joy, “Children teach us so many kinds of joys: spontaneity, living in the present, being totally interested in and often thrilled with life. But they must learn other joys: sharing, service, setting and achieving goals, searching and finding, planting and harvesting.”

The following activities will help teach your children about the joy of sharing and service:

First, encourage your children to participate in service to family members.

• Serve each other- service includes anything from helping brother to find his shoes to letting sister use the new hairbrush. Older children can serve their younger brothers and sisters in countless ways, for example, helping their younger brother or sister with their online homework.
• Serving parents- service includes having the youth help with preparing dinner, running errands, folding clothes, and helping with household cleaning.

Second, make a list of daily gifts to share with others:

• Thank a first responder
• Bake cookies for delivery to a neighbor
• Smile at everyone you meet
• Share a Christmas memory with a family member
• Turn off the television set and have a conversation
• Fix a family member's favorite meal

Third, provide service to the community. JustServe.org is a free service that shares community service projects in central Florida. Due to the COVID-19, JustServe.org also has list of online service opportunities where you can serve from home. The opportunities to help in the community are endless- here’s some current listings in the Orlando area:

• Assist with preparing meals for the elderly
• Providing blankets for seriously ill children
• Helping with food donations to a food pantry
• Becoming a pen pal to a senior citizen

Lloyd Newell made the following observation in a Music and the Spoken Word broadcast: “Improving the world doesn’t always mean going far from home. Look around you and you will find countless ways to contribute “to the welfare of all.” Every selfless thought moves the needle. Every act of kindness and love, no matter how small, carries significant weight in these scales of greatness. This is a higher way to live.”