This is most likely the most important day of the year (except for maybe easter). This is the time that every store (should be every store) on the planet is closed and being with your family is required by society. Now this is not going to be the norm for everyone, but the majority of people are going to spend this time with family.

Use this day to forget about the rest of the world. This is the day when the rest of the world doesn’t matter. This is the day when the only world that you will know is what is going on inside your house.

Here are my tips:

1. Leave your anger outside. Don’t bring it in with you.
2. Love the people around you.
3. Make some good food.
4. Eat some more good food.
5. Don’t worry about overeating.
6. Don’t worry about your job or school.
7. Hug everyone.
8. Kiss your spouse, children and mother.
9. Enjoy the excitement of gift giving and receiving.
10. Don’t covet what others received.
11. Don’t drink in excess. You want to remember the day.
12. Most importantly: Remember JESUS

While you are buried deep into your own holiday traditions, sometimes remembering the rest of your family can slip through the cracks. Call your mom. She will be the one that will miss you the most. If your mom is no longer with us, call your children.

Some people don’t really have extended family. This is when those best and life long friends come in to place. They, a lot of times, feel more like family than the people who raised you. Make sure they get a call from you and that you are thinking of them during the holidays. They will appreciate it.

I think that Christmas Eve is a great time to call your extended family. You know the ones. They are the ones that you will not be seeing on Christmas day. They are the ones that are to far away to visit, or they are having their own traditional festivities on Christmas. Christmas Eve is the best time to call because on Christmas Day you will want to spend all your time with your family, cooking, eating and opening presents.

This is the time to show off all the work you have done throughout the rest of the month. Make sure your house is spotless and light several candles. Turn on the Christmas lights and cook your brains out.

Expect a few people to be early. Have something to munch on set out on the coffee table. Invite them into the kitchen while you finish cooking and preparing the food. Have plenty of drinks available. If you are prepared, you will have a great party.

Exchange gifts if you have gifts to exchange. If you have kids, they will most likely be the ones that will have the most gifts to exchange. Make it fun for the kids. These are the times that they will remember for the rest of their lives.

JESUS

Remember Jesus during this Christmas Season. He is the reason that Christmas exists. I means the holiday starts with His name (Christ). He came to this world to take responsibility for all the wrongdoing we have ever done or will ever do. He came to save of from an eternity of separation from God, from Himself.

Take time this year to sit down and read the Christmas story. The second chapter of Matthew in the Bible would be a great place to start.

OK… I know what you are going to say. Your pets don’t even know what Christmas is all about. That may be true, but they do realize that there are changes going on around the house and they can most likely sense a climax in the season. They will love to become a part of your Christmas day festivities.

Some people like to get some kind of toy for their pet on Christmas. I find that they are extremely happy playing with the balled up pieces of wrapping paper that are no longer covering the presents that your family opened on Christmas morning.

I also find that it is a nice gesture to feed your pet something rare… something that you don’t normally give them on a regular basis. If you have a dog… give them a steak. If you have a cat, cook up some fresh salmon and give them a bowl of milk. It will be a nice treat. Just be prepared to clean up a mess if their stomachs don’t like it. That is all part of the gift. It’s kind of like your kids when they eat too much candy or pie after dinner. They get hyper then they get tired or sick.

Whatever the case… just make sure you make your pets part of you family traditions. They are par of the family and they deserve to be involved.

NOTE: if you have family over who have an allergy to your pets, remind those family members to take benadryl before they arrive. This way everyone can be there.

Christmas is an extremely fun time of the year, but it can be dangerous as well if you are not aware of what can turn the season into a disaster. You should be aware of the dangers when it comes to using a lot of electricity in your light up decorations.

If you plug too many lights into one outlet, you can have a power surge. With that surge there can be sparks that just might set something on fire. Make sure that you don’t plug everything into one outlet. If you do, make sure you use heavy duty extension cords and that you don’t string together to many lights together.

I have a power strip that sits on my front porch. I have 4 extension cords plugged into it. One goes to the roof. One goes to the garage. One goes to the front yard and the fourth one goes to the window light up decorations.

If you look at the box your string lights came in… most of them say not to string more than three of them together. If you do, you run the risk of the lights not drawing enough power (not even lighting up), or drawing too much power causing a number of other problems.

You should only run your lights when you are home. This way you are able to pull the power if something does happen. You can minimize any damage that might happen by being there to put out a fire yourself or calling the fire department.

Don’t turn on your lights in the rain or in the morning after the dew settles. Wait ‘til the yard and house is dry before you plug in your lights. Water conducts electricity which can short out your circuit or set fire to the house or yard.

Have fun with your decorations, but be careful.

It is so much fun having your family home for Christmas. There is so much you can do. Most people have a time of opening presents. Then they have dinner about mid afternoon. They stuff themselves silly and watch whatever event is on the television. I’m here to say that Christmas is a great time to play games that will bring your family closer together.

Think about football. Since your family is all together, it is likely that you will have enough people to play a decent game of touch football. Get the kids involved. You will be surprised at how well those little ones play.

My family likes to play pool. Of course this only works if you have a pool table readily available. Just hand out, put on some music and play doubles so everyone in the house gets a chance to play.

There are a number of games that you can turn into Christmas games. Try Christmas Pictionary or Christmas Charades. You could also play boardgames like Scrabble (where the only words you can comes up with have to be about Christmas)

Be creative. Your family doesn’t have to sit around all day on Christmas. Get them involved. Make it a day to remember.