Help your family take stock of what you are doing to help others through this cute and easy Christmas craft/decoration.  Simply tape several sheets of brown construction paper (or brown grocery bags) together and then cut out the form of a triangular tree, plus a trunk. Then trace the hands of each family member, including mom and dad!  Tape the smaller hand-prints at the top, working down as the hands get bigger.  Discuss ways that your family is helping others and write them on the hand-prints.  Embellish with a yellow paper star at the top titled “(Last Name) Helping Hand Tree” and some related Bible verses at the bottom (see suggestions below.)

We created the one in the picture when my kids were preschoolers, but I’ve kept it with our Christmas decorations and we pull it out every year to hang in our game-room.  It serves as a good reminder of ways we can help others, not only at Christmas, but throughout the year.  We haven’t added to it in several years, but I think we will at some point this season for a family devotional.  Now that the kids are older and we have new ways of helping others, it will be interesting to hear their input and let them do the writing…and let them compare handprints to see how much they’ve grown!

“But encourage one another.”  Hebrews 3:13

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”  Ephesians 4:32

“Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”  2 Corinthians 9:7

“In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”  Acts 20:35