christmas symbols and decorations

christmas time is here at last! this first week back from thanksgiving break, our seminary classes have had special lessons on the true meaning of christmas. hopefully they're not sick of this topic before we even get to the 25th of december! but with our lessons on christmas, we tied each symbol to some kind of goal that each student could make. here are the symbols we discussed, made, and put on our wall for the month of december:

1. the christmas chain -- (d {and} c 82:10) "i, the Lord, am bound when ye do what i say; but when ye do not what i say, ye have no promise." each student received red and green strips of paper to write a commandment or standard from the for the for the strength of the youth pamphlet they would work harder at during this month of december. when we linked all the strips of paper together, we had a beautiful christmas chain.
2. the star -- (matthew 2:10) just as the wisemen and shepherds followed the star to find the babe in a manger, and as the nephites in the promised land rejoiced because of this sign of their Savior's birth, each student cut out a star and wrote on it one thing they would do to find Christ in their life this christmas.
3. snowflakes -- (isaiah 1:18) ... "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." each student cut out their own unique snowflake and wrote on it things they wanted to improve on in their lives; sins or burdens they wanted to get rid of.
4. trees -- (acts 5:30, isaiah 49:16) the Son of Man, Savior of Mankind, was raised upon a tree to hang and die. nails were pierced into hands and feet; He has engraven us upon the palms of His hands. each student traced their hand on a piece of green paper and wrote their testimonies on it. we arranged them in the shape of a christmas tree on the wall to show our gratitude for what Christ did for us.
5. candy cane -- "the shepherd's crook" (john 10:14, d {and} c 18:15-16) ... the Good Shepherd knows His sheep and the sheep know their Shepherd. as our Savior gently gathers us back to His fold with his crook, so should we find other lost sheep and gently, lovingly, and patiently gather them together, coming back to the fold and back to His love. each student cut out and colored a candy cane and wrote on it what they would do to gather someone else to Christ this christmas season.
6. gifts -- (matthew 2:11, Luke 2:7, 2 Corinthians 9:15) ... for this section we did another special lesson about p.j.s. stay tuned :)