I mentioned before that I collect nativity sets (Christmas Decor). And as a teacher would say to her kindergarten class, I love them all (hum, actually I am not sure a kindergarten teacher would say, or would be able to say, ‘I love them all’ … but that is a topic for another day). Truly, I do have my favorites, though.
There is the one that is a magnet advent calendar, painted ever so beautifully. Or the one that is a metal tree ornament, and when you place a light bulb from the tree lights through it’s base, the nativity shines brightly. Or the ceramic one that, was played with constantly when our oldest was a toddler. One day she placed the baby into the pocket of her overalls, and it went through the wash. Baby Jesus came out with a skinned bottom … kind of added a realistic side to the Christ child.
But, my very favorite is an all white resin one, with a light hidden in the top. All of the characters of the nativity are children, dressed up as though for a Christmas pageant, all standing on a stage and it’s stairs looking intently … so intently, at the real baby in the manger. To me it always reminds me of the wonder that drew all those characters to the babe in the first place.
To me, there is no more beautiful way to portray the nativity, than with children. And the younger, the better! There is little ‘acting’ involved for young children, as they simply act out the story that has been told to them many times. And they act it out as they imagine it … full of awe and wonder. Full of the awe and wonder that was there that first Christmas.
We adults are too … mature … to be free to see it, to smell it and to feel it in our souls, as a little child.
As this season moves closer to December twenty-forth and twenty-fifth, my heart increases it’s cry for this picture of the nativity. My heart increases in it’s longing to feel and know the awe and wonder of what we are celebrating. It increases in it’s cry to “just give me Jesus.”
Confession time … I do not like the Little Drummer Boy Christmas song. W A Y back when I was a kid it was my favorite song, and favorite Christmas TV special. But, as I got older my fondness for it has waned dramatically … until now.
Only our youngest daughter, and our student from China decided to participate in this event. Our daughter from China was so excited to be making Christmas cookies for the first time. First time experiences create an atmosphere that just makes you want to be around.
The final (bolded) lines are from my recitation of many years ago (the fact that this is called a ‘recitation’ is evidence of that fact). And, although I was not so very successful at memorizing them, they have stayed with me for all of my life. There is something beautiful, dreamy and haunting about both the poem, and the music that was added to it. I have to say my favorite version is by Sarah McLaughlin, a few years ago, on her Wintersong CD.
gifts. It has been a rare occasion that the preliminary tasks take beyond noon.
The language of the poem takes me to the time of Ebeneezer Scrooge, perhaps during the Industrial Revolution (late eighteenth to mid. nineteenth century), when child labor and beggars or every age were a norm. I have in my mind a picture of a weathered old man saying this rhyme with a Cockney English accent, while holding out his tattered hat to passers-by.
itsawonderfilledlife 