Beyond the manger ... by Shannon

This year when my mom, who loves Nativity sets, asked what Jocelyn might like for Christmas, I mentioned the Fisher Price Little People set. Since Advent was always a big deal in our home, I shouldn't have been surprised to find the set, along with the coordinating inn and wise men sets, on our doorstep in time for the beginning of the Advent season. We cleared off a side table to allow for the manger, the inn, and the wise men to each occupy a level, and Jocelyn has loved it!

She ignores most of the characters, just playing with the animals, except for baby Jesus. In the pictures above you may have noticed that the main man is missing from the scene. That's because Jocelyn runs around the house with the figure that she calls "baby 'sus." She covers him with kisses and shoves him in the cats' faces, shouting "baby 'sus" the entire time. Occasionally, she gets distracted and leaves the baby somewhere, but she always returns to find him (sometimes after an extensive search). Thus, baby Jesus is rarely in the Nativity set.

As I thought about this, it brought to mind how easy it is for all of us to leave Jesus in the manger. Babies are pretty safe and unintimidating, right? We're often more comfortable with Him in the manger as a babe than we are, for example, as a man clearing the money changers out of the temple. And we're often more comfortable leaving Jesus in His place in the manager … or perhaps at church after Christmas Eve or Easter or just a typical Sunday worship service … than we are taking Him with us in our lives, carrying Him around, giving Him kisses with the way we live our lives, and sharing His message to others (though, unlike Jocelyn's approach with the cats, not shoving Him in their faces!).

I think we'll be beginning a new tradition this year. As I pack up our Nativity set this year, I'll be leaving baby 'sus out as a reminder that He entered His human life in a stable but that He was never meant to stay there.

It's Christmas ...

'Tis that time of year when carolers sing

Of the manger where Jesus lay;
How there was no soft pillow to cradle His head,
Only a mattress of hay.

Then our thoughts dart foward
To a cross on a hill,
And Jesus, by choice, hanging there,
By the world rejected still.

And for just a moment we feel so sad
As we think of the price He paid;
But He gave His life freely; He loved us that much,
And He triumphed over the grave!

It's Christmas, my beloved friends,
And 'midst all the "hullabaloo"
Let's not lose sight of the simple fact
That He did what He came to do!

The Bethlehem manger is empty,
And bare is Calvary's tree;
The Savior of the world now lives...
Forever...in YOU and ME.

Copyright ©2008 Melvin Bennett

Jesus is our Joy...

And Mary said,
"My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices
in God my Savior..."
Luke 1:46-47


And the angel said to them,
"Fear not, for behold,
I bring you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
For unto you is born this day
in the city of David
a Savior who is
Christ the Lord."
Luke 2:10-11


When they saw the star,
They rejoiced exceedingly
with great joy.
Matthew 2:10

Christmas Traditions ... by Tina

Here are a few things we have done over the years to celebrate Christmas...

On Christmas Eve, our family usually goes out for an early dinner around 4:00pm (there have been times when we just had a special dinner at home). Most years we invite another family to join us to celebrate the evening. After dinner we go to the 6:00 Love Feast service. After the service our family goes home for the kids to open one small gift which is usually pajamas, house shoes or something fun for the kids to do that evening.

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Occasionally my extended family will come for Christmas. Last year, my mom and dad were here and they gave each of the kids a new Bible for Christmas. My husband, Steve, did something very special... he asked my dad to pray a special blessing over the kids. He had the kids get on their knees in front of them and my dad laid his hands on them and said a prayer of blessing for each of them. Although it was a little awkward for the kids, it was a very precious moment for me and I pray that our kids will always be grateful and remember their Christian heritage.

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One of our annual traditions -- that I routinely vow to start earlier on or not do the following year -- is our family Christmas letter. In the beginning I would do a separate letter for family and friends, church staff, and youth workers. That idea quickly dissolved after a few years -- especially after we moved a few times and our mailing list grew -- and it has become one compiled letter for the masses. My current mailing list is more than 200 recipients... so now that the kids are older we have brought them in to help with the assembly. It has been written using different themes... simple holiday greetings from our house to yours, more elaborate letters including a page of pictures, a year of firsts for our family, special memories of the previous year, a letter written by our kids, and then there was that one year ... when I had a great idea of writing about the "Twelve Months before Christmas," which included pictures. It ended up being five pages long!!! Can you imagine us printing and stapling 1,000 pages, not to mention addressing and stamping all those letters? After that year, we have gone to one page letters and one Christmas card photo. Seriously, the annual letters have really become a highlight for our family (now having to be approved by our three teenagers before sending out) as they record a little family history about each year. We've been told by family and friends that we don't see often that they love keeping up with our family through our Christmas letter.

Photography by Heather for this post...

Christmas Eve Book Dinner ... by Ivy

I do not recall what year this family tradition of ours officially started, but since it has we have not missed one year. My parents were both educators and were the entire time I was growing up. My father was a high school teacher teaching several subjects including English, Poetry, American Literature, Biology, Chemistry, Enrichment, and yes the list does go on, believe it or not. If you are wondering... no, never play Trivial Pursuit with the man because you WILL lose. My sister-in-law while she was living with us for a short time challenged him every night for I think a month and still never beat him. Probably the closest anyone HAD come but it still didn't happen.

Anyway, my mother was an elementary teacher teaching 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th. She taught 1st grade the longest and that was truly her favorite age. I say they did teach, as in past tense, because my mom is currently an elementary school principal and my dad is an Instructional Facilitator for the high school.

Okay on with the tradition... since our family was absorbed in education, every year for Christmas my parents would end up buying everyone a book. Somehow (I was too little so I don't remember exactly how) we ended up unwrapping these on Christmas Eve instead of waiting until Christmas morning. I think because we really wanted to open something and my dad usually wanted his book so he could stay up reading it Christmas Eve night waiting for us kids to go to bed so he could put out all our toys! However it happened, my mom would wrap up the books and place them on our plates for our Christmas Eve Dinner. This was a big deal - the good dishes, candlelight, the works! And before dinner we would open our books, ooh and ahh and flip through them, reading the beginning to perk our interest, and then we would have to put them aside while my dad read from THE BOOK: the Bible. My dad would read the Christmas story from one of the gospels (we would mix it up every year) while the rest of us took the Nativity pieces and the first mention of the name of the character we had we would place them in the middle of the table in its right spot! Once books were opened and THE Book was read, then dinner would officially begin! My request was always Cherry Glazed Ham, yum yum!!

Even though both my brother and I are both grown and have families of our own we ALL still do the Christmas Eve Book Dinner!

Photography by Heather for this post...

More collections...

Here are a few more collections from our Friends...

Snowmen...

Nutcrackers...

Tatted Christmas crafts ...

Collections as traditions...

My cousin, Barbara, has a Santa collection that would rival anything you've seen in a museum. I"m not talking a mantle full of the jolly ol' elf. I'm talking about house full, with every surface imaginable hosting its own special Santa. She is a collector extraordinaire.

I have to say that I LOVE it when I know people collect a certain type of Christmas-themed objects. It makes gift-giving so much easier.

After hearing from many of you, I realize that those of you who are moms and grandmas and aunts are busy building tree ornament collections for the little ones in the family. We are doing the same. Our tree will be virtually bare once everyone gets married and establishes their own family traditions. On the other hand, their trees will be packed, so they will start their families with traditions in place.

Here is a quick tour of our family's ornament tradition...

Each child in the family has a
Precious Moments First Christmas ornament hanging on our tree.

Our oldest child collects pig Christmas tree ornaments.

Our second child plays football, so each Christmas,
he gets a football ornament.

Our youngest was a Thomas the Tank Engine maniac when he was small. We've decided to keep building that collection in tree ornaments so that he can share it with his children one day.

We write each child's initials and the year on the ornaments to help everyone remember who got what when.

While decorating the tree is distinctly a family affair, the job of taking it down belongs solely to Mom. So when I start untrimming the tree after January 6th, I take the opportunity to pray for my kids as I carefully pack away their ornaments until next Christmas. I pray for them-- for their relationship with the Lord, for their future spouses and children, for their ministries, for anything that the Lord brings to mind during that time. As only the Lord can do, He takes what I would normally see as drudgery and makes it into a beautiful opportunity to spend time worshipping Him and covering my children in prayer. What a blessing!