Photo by JoAnn Hall: A Nativity set featuring a coconut stable or shelter and figures hand-made from clay, purchased during JoAnn Hall’s first mission trip to Haiti.

“Are you ready for Christmas?” UMCom writer Joe Iovino says his heart races whenever he hears that question and thinks of his lengthy to-do list. “However, if we thought about Advent a little differently,” he says, “our ‘getting ready’ could be more of a holy time. Keeping Christ in Christmas means not letting all the busyness encroach upon our reason for the season, but instead making time for important activities as we get ready to welcome and worship the Christ child to a world in dire need of his presence.

In fact, Joe suggests various ways to worship alone, with family and with one’s congregation, and how to make decorating and other preparations a time to be holy and helpful to others. Also he offers ideas for giving and celebrating in the best spirit of the season, to make this Christmas one to cherish and remember always. Learn more…