When my kids were younger, every December as Christmas would draw closer, the ride to school in our SUV would get filled up with wacky Christmas songs. We’d take a non-sacred Christmas song like O Christmas Tree or Frosty the Snowman and rewrite the words to the song, often with hilarious results. (What’s a Seattle/Vancouver snowman? Three puddles!) Each year, we would sing the wacky ones we made up in years gone by, and then we’d start working out a line at a time on a new one for that year. What started out as a little bit of drive-time fun became a wonderful tradition. My children’s friends have even learned the wacky songs, and they’ve spread throughout the school.

Quite a few of the things that happened in our family as a result of taking advantage of available moments have become repeats, or when associated with special days, traditions.

When you make an effort to use the moments (between all of the busy moments), sometimes you’ll strike gold! When something you do clicks with your family, and love and laughter happens, if appropriate, make an effort to repeat it. As you do, traditions and memories will develop. This not only makes your family a more pleasant place to grow up, but it also enhances your unique family identity.

Every person has a unique identity; different countries have unique identities; different churches do as well. We don’t tend to think of families this way, but it’s also true of them. All of the fun moments and traditions and habits mixed together with the unique combination of personalities in your family all contribute to make up your unique family identity. When your family identity is strong and happy, your children’s sense of family and belonging will tend to be stronger. It’s when the identity is weak or negative that our children are more prone to look elsewhere for their identity.

So this Christmas when you find the moments, the simple and fun things that work in your family – the gold – add them to your family’s identity. If you have traditions that are easy and wonderful from years gone by, bring them up in conversation and/or cause a repeat.

Just for fun, I’ve included one of my family’s wacky Christmas carols. A little background first. The song ‘Oh, Christmas Tree’ has always struck us as being a little TOO focused on the tree itself as opposed to what it represents. So we decided that we’d have a little fun with the downside of the Christmas tree. Please remember this is just a bit of fun. We love our Christmas Trees. After all, this is coming from the author of the best-selling ‘The Legend of The Christmas Tree. : ) Enjoy!

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree
Oh how your pine needles annoy me
They fall on the carpet and they rot
In my vacuum they get caught
Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree
Oh how your pine needles annoy me

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree
Oh what a fire hazard you can be
Your branches all dry up and die
Just one spark and they would fry
Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree
Oh what a fire hazard you can be

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree
I’m thinking of replacing thee
I’ve had my eye upon a fake
But with it comes a huge fruitcake
Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree
I guess for now i’m stuck with thee

It’s been a Great year and on behalf of the staff of Christian Parenting Daily, I want to thank you for your support and involvement! Have a VERY MERRY Christ-centered Christmas with lots of fun family moments!

Rick Osborne and family.