Readers share favorite Christmas memories
Wise men journey around house on way to Nativity
By Ray Lucas
Special to The Criterion
One of my favorite Christmas memories came earlier this year and was part of our family Advent preparations. After the lengthy task of selecting a live tree that met the approval of my 7-year-old daughter, Olivia, and my 5-year-old son, Eli, we began preparing our home for Christmas.
We set up the tree, strung the lights and began hanging the ornaments. Many of our ornaments are handmade by my children, and they took great pride in pulling them out and admiring their work.
“I made this one when I was just a little kid, didn’t I, Daddy?” asked my suddenly quite mature son, proud of his own creativity.
The other ornaments are from places we have visited or have a specific story about them. One of the ornaments and accompanying story they enjoy most involves the skunk ornament.
“Tell us about this ornament,” Olivia demanded as she pulled the wooden skunk out of the box.
“Tell us about the time that a family of skunks got under our house and lived there for a few weeks,” she said, telling most of the story already.
One by one, we hung the ornaments, recalling the history of each ornament. As we came to the bottom of our ornament box, the kids stood back and admired their ornaments, all hung with care.
I had to smile at the sight of the majority of the ornaments pulling down the bottom half of the tree, arranged only as high as Olivia and Eli could reach. I silently resolved to shift a few of them up higher later when they aren’t looking.
Afterward, we began putting out the remainder of our decorations with Olivia volunteering to set up the manger scene. Over the past few years, we have had a tradition—which came from a friend—that the wise men don’t start out in the manger. They spend the next several weeks traveling around the room following the star.
I had to retell the story to Olivia and Eli to explain why the wise men weren’t there yet and decided this would be a great opportunity to talk about the Catholic faith at home.
We pulled out the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth in Matthew and Luke and read through them. Then Olivia announced that not only should the wise men be on the road, but the shepherds, the sheep and the angel should be by themselves in a field until after Christmas morning.
When all the dust settled, the shepherd and his gang were perched on the bookshelf awaiting their grand entrance. The Magi started on the coloring table and during the next few days had made it to the pink Barbie house, where they found shelter for the night.
As I recall this fresh memory of Christmas, I am reminded of all the teachable moments we have with our children.
The manger scene has been transformed for my children from a static Christmas decoration to a dynamic experience of our faith history. This day of Christmas preparation has been transformed from one that I used to dread to a day pregnant with family memories and faith.
Finally, we finished arranging the suddenly sparse manger scene, and I reminded Olivia that technically even baby Jesus hasn’t arrived yet. I suggested that we take him from the manger until his birth on Christmas day.
Well, that was more than my 7-year-old daughter could bear.
“Oh no, Daddy, Jesus needs to stay in the manger,” she explained. “Without him, it would be just Mary and Joseph, and that doesn’t look right.”
I smiled and relented.
“OK, honey, we’ll leave baby Jesus there this year.”
And I made a mental note of a teachable moment that I can re-visit with them next Advent.
(Ray Lucas is the director of Catholic Youth Ministries in the New Albany Deanery and is a member of St. Joseph Parish in Clark County.) †