{"id":3307,"date":"2013-11-26T16:59:44","date_gmt":"2013-11-26T15:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=3307"},"modified":"2013-11-26T16:59:44","modified_gmt":"2013-11-26T15:59:44","slug":"just-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=3307","title":{"rendered":"“Just Christmas”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Just<\/a>Our Church is involved in something called “Just Christmas”.<\/a>\u00a0 The idea is to have a more simple and less materialistic Christmas whilst remembering its true meaning, giving money you would have spent on presents away.\u00a0 To be honest we have struggled with it as a family and I suspect as a church, but after a congregational survey the church have stuck with it.\u00a0 Its very difficult to break away from the materialistic feast that Christmas has become, especially if you have children.<\/p>\n

One way to create a “Just Christmas” is to make your own gifts and our connect group (home group) had a go at this last week.\u00a0 Having floated the idea and asked for volunteers we were pleasantly surprised at how much talent we had in the group.<\/p>\n

We tried four activities.<\/p>\n

Making boxes and bags (this involved braiding).<\/p>\n

\"braids<\/a>

braids, bags and boxes<\/p><\/div>\n

Jam making.<\/p>\n

\"jam<\/a>

jam making<\/p><\/div>\n

Making beads.\u00a0 These are made from torn up magazines dipped in glue wound round a spindle (a kiddies paintbrush handle).<\/p>\n

\"Beads<\/a>

Beads made from old magazines<\/p><\/div>\n

Candlemaking (meant to be red but turned out a bit pink).<\/p>\n

\"Candles\"<\/a>

Candles<\/p><\/div>\n

Hopefully this has given you some inspiration to do the same and have a more “Just Christmas”.\u00a0 As we wrote in our book<\/a> we are going to have to make do with less material goods in the future and making presents yourself will become necessary, but its also fun to do, especially as a group.\u00a0 Another way to have a “Just Christmas” is to invite someone for a meal this Christmas who may not have somewhere to go.<\/p>\n

“For to us a child is born,<\/span><\/em>
to us <\/span>a son is given;<\/span><\/em>
and the government shall be <\/span>upon <\/span>his shoulder,<\/span><\/em>
and his name shall be called<\/span><\/em>
Wonderful <\/span>Counselor,<\/span>Mighty God,<\/span><\/em>
Everlasting <\/span>Father, Prince of<\/span> Peace.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Happy advent.<\/p>\n

Neil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our Church is involved in something called “Just Christmas”.\u00a0 The idea is to have a more simple and less materialistic Christmas whilst remembering its true meaning, giving money you would have spent on presents away.\u00a0 To be honest we have … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,24,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-intentional-living","category-slow-living"],"yoast_head":"\nJust Christmas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Our Church is involved in something called "Just Christmas". 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