Christmas for many people means buying gifts, visiting with family, enjoying friends, food and good cheer along with a host of presents for all involved.
To Christians it means a little bit more. We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, the One who will reunite us with our Heavenly Father. The Light of the World and the King of Kings, He, who was foretold in the Old Testament of the Bible, is the One we celebrate on Christmas Day.
To that end, many people will light candles as part of the ambiance of their festivities. For weeks beforehand, and right up until the actual Christmas Day, candles play an important part of the celebrations.
For those of you with little children, candles, can be a little risky. After all with all the excitement of the season, sometimes little ones forget about safety and about the burning candles everywhere. But don’t be downhearted about that, there are many ways to still enjoy the beauty of candles in a way that will be safer and still give that special glow to the family’s surroundings.
Using candle shaped battery operated lights will give you almost the same “feeling” as real candles do, but your “worry factor” will be diminished quite a bit as there are no flames that can do any harm. I like the candle shaped ones for Advent Wreaths. Each Sunday before Christmas one candle is lit, and as it comes closer and closer to Christmas there will be two, then three, then four candles lit until Christmas Morning when the final candle joins in. What started out as a dim light, by Christmas is a beautiful bright light, celebrating Christ’s Birth.
The other battery operated light strings can be used as table decorations, on the mantle or anywhere else that a little Christmas lighting will brighten. We use our around our manger scene, so that in the evening there is a still and solemn feeling when the small lights “highlight” the crib with the Baby inside.
Just writing about how we celebrate makes me all warm inside and I can hardly wait till next week when the First Sunday in Advent is celebrated!
The Baby is Born
If your children are all grown up and there are no worries about lit candles, then I would go for the real thing. Christmas candles make the centerpiece of the table just glow and everything is just that much more special! Lit candles on the table just signify something extraordinary.
We love candles at our house and Christmas time just isn’t quite right without our advent wreath and candles set around the piano, mantle and some at the table to give that lustrous glow. I usually have a couple of scented candles to make sure that everyone gets good and hungry before the Christmas dinner is put on. Sweet smells of Cinnamon Buns just seem to wake everyone’s taste buds up.
Christmas Carols and candle light, family and friends, gifts to share and love all around, these are the things that make Christmas memories for everyone.
After all is opened and the coffee, hot chocolate and tea are being enjoyed, the candles are still flickering in their protective containers so that we don’t have to worry about accidents. And because we are all more or less grown up, there isn’t the worry of candles being upturned and causing a fire. We still remain vigilant and careful though. No one leaves the home, until all the candles are blown out, so that tomorrow we can enjoy and re-live our Christmas morning.
Here’s hoping that you find Peace, Happiness and an Abundance of Love over your Christmas Holidays.
God Bless
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