Happy Birthday Jesus! (our devotion and cake)

Yes, I know...I'm a little late with that title but this is my post to tell you about/show you our birthday party for Jesus. I ordered a chocolate cake with white icing and saved some time. I had them decorate it to look like a gift and write "Happy Birthday Jesus."

Dark Cake: Before knowing Jesus, our hearts are like this dark cake, and we couldn't get into heaven with our hearts so full of sin (Romans 3:23)
White Frosting: (If you bake your own cake you frost it as you talk about the meaning of the white frosting) God did a wonderful thing when he sent his Son, Jesus, to die for our sins. Now all the darkness is covered up, and Jesus washes our sins white as snow. We are pure white in the sight of God. When we ask Jesus to forgive all the bad things we've done, we are white like this frosting (Romans 6:23)
Angel decoration:(Place the angel on the cake or have a child do it) The angel reminds us of the good tidings that were brought to the shepherds that night. It also reminds us of the good tidings, or good news, that we can bring to others (Luke 2:10)Star:The star reminds us of the star in Bethlehem and how the Wise men followed it and worshiped the Lord Jesus. It reminds us that we should worship and follow Him everyday. We can do this by praying, reading our Bibles, and going to church.

12 Red Candles: The red color reminds us of Jesus' blood that was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. Because He died and rose again, we can have eternal life and go to heaven if we believe (Romans 5:8
Light the Candles: Jesus can shine in our hearts if we just ask Him to be our Savior. The 12 candles remind us to let His light shine every month of the year, not just at Christmas time (Matthew 5:16)

Evergreens: (Place around the cake-we chose to put them in a pile...kids decorated it!) Evergreens around the cake remind us of something living and growing. If we have accepted Jesus into our hearts, we are going to grow and get to know Him more. How can we grow to know Him better? By praying, going to church, reading our Bibles, and sharing Him with others (John 15:5 or 2 Peter 3:18)At this point we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and then the kids blew out the candles.

Some people do this in the morning but for the sake of saving ourselves from a sugar high right before opening presents and then a serious meltdown, we chose to do this in the evening after we were done with all of our other activities that way when they came down off the sugar and fell apart, we just put them to bed.....well, that would have worked except Grace fell and tore her face up....check previous post if you missed that story. We began our morning by reading the story of Jesus' birth after the kids joined us in bed and then went out and opened presents. This actually turned out to be a good way to bring the focus back to Jesus by having our cake in the evening!

What did your family do to celebrate Jesus? Leave a comment and let me know...just curious for new ideas!