This Christmas

For the last few years I've been making an effort to help our family do more to look outward during the Christmas season.  In the past, we've included little service projects during in our activity advent, we've made a point of sharing treats with friends and neighbors, we've "given the baby Jesus" a collection of papers listing good deeds we've done, and we've contributed the spare change we've collected to a charitable cause.  But in an effort to try to integrate service into our thoughts and habits, we're trying to focus on small acts of kindness we can perform every day.  So tonight during FHE we talked about things we can do all day.  This is the list the kids and I came up with (as recorded by Cat):

Pick up their things if they fall

Respect

Write a nice note

Compliment them

Smile

Listen to them

Be encouraging

Be funny

Be nice

Sit with someone new

Say thank you

Pick up their trash

Share

Say nice things

Help them carry

Hold door open

Talk to someone new

Behave (referring to being well-behaved at school)

Cheer someone up

Along the same lines, we wanted to try to help everyone in the family feel more loved and really encourage more service all the time, so we're also trying Secret Siblings this year.  Each of The Bigs was given a sibling to be his/her secret sibling.  They are to do secret acts of service until Christmas for their sibling, then reveal themselves with a gift on Christmas morning.  These are the ideas we came up with for Secret Sibling service (again, written down by Cat):

Make beds

Help in general

Help clean room

Talk nicer

Play with them

Let them help

Listen to them

Share

Put away their things

Say sorry

Do their job

Let them talk

Be encouraging

Read to them

Help them get ready

Write nice notes

Fold laundry

Obey

Say please, thank you, and I❤U

Let them do their thing (meaning don't interfere if they are trying to practice piano or get homework done, etc.)

I'd still like to do some of the other bigger projects we've done in the past, but I'm hoping that by really emphasizing the little things, we can make service and intentional kindness more of a pattern for our family not just at Christmas time, but all year long.

How have you taught your family to be more service-oriented?  Is there anything special you do during the Christmas season to reduce the I-wants?