CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS 2: WHERE IS BABY JESUS?

This is one of our very favorite traditions, and it is actually a tradition from the Tillis family. I've been doing this all of my life (slightly modified for our family)!

We have 8 nativity sets, ranging from the "nice" porcelain set in the living room to the plastic set that I got the girls to play with when they were toddlers. Each year we set them up around the house. Almost every room has one. However, the baby Jesus figure from each set is hidden until Christmas morning. When the girls wake up on Christmas, the first thing they do is place each baby Jesus in His manger.

Usually I lay the baby Jesus figures on the dining room table and the girls take them from there to the appropriate mangers (followed by Eric with the video camera, of course!) However, last year Avery decided that the figures should be hidden so that she and Ella could hunt for them. At first this sounded a little sacriligious to me, but then I thought, "why not?" and so our new tradition includes a hunt for the figures. Hmmm...that strangely mirrors the egg hunt that we do at Easter...

The reason that I love this tradition is that it focuses my children on why we are celebrating Christmas. There hasn't been a year where they run to see what's under the tree first. They have always delighted in placing baby Jesus in His manger before we turn towards the presents. I hope this means that they're beginning to understand that He is the greatest gift that we will ever receive.

"The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23