One of our favorite, free Christmas traditions

When I was a little girl, my parents started a simple, but very meaningful tradition to take place all through the Advent season. Dad built a wooden manger, about 9 inches long and 6 inches high. He just used old 3/4 inch thick scrap wood, and stained it dark brown. Mother bought fat yellow yarn and cut it up into 6 inch lengths. They put the yarn into an old coffeecan and placed it and the manger under the Christmas tree. Each time someone in the family did something loving for someone else, he or she could then take one of the pieces of yarn "straw" and put it in the manger. The goal was to have a soft, welcoming bed for baby Jesus by Christmas Eve.

Each Sunday of Advent we would draw a family member's name from the hat, and that is who we would focus our acts of love on for the week. So I remember having my little sister Allison's name, and doing things like setting the dinner table for her when it was her turn, playing with her (when I would not have otherwise), or letting her use my favorite toys. Each time I did something loving, I got to put another piece of "straw" into the manger--and we all did the acts without announcing them, and tried to slip in the straw when no one else was in the room, to keep the game a little secretive (and more selfless, now that I think about it).

Every Christmas Eve we would have a full manger, so ready and inviting, symbolizing our excited anticipation of Christmas morning. But the best part, of course, was practicing choosing to love one another in tangible ways throughout the Advent season.

A few years back when I was visiting my folks in IL and helping sort the junk treasures in the attic, I found that old manger we had used when we were kids. I cleaned it off, and--with my parents' blessing--brought it back to CA to continue the tradition!

So each year we get out the manger and "straw" (except I really need some new yarn--I could only find regular weight yarn the first year, but it takes SO many more loving deeds to fill up the manger! And the fat yarn just looks so much softer, like you might really lay a baby on it. : ) and start looking for tangible ways to love on one another. We don't draw names like my parents did, so anyone can do anything loving for anyone else in the family and get to put a straw in. (With little ones you have to guide a bit until they understand the concepts, encouraging them to put in a straw when you witness them sharing a toy with a sibling, or when they give someone else the first turn. Let them put in a straw anytime they give a hug or kiss or say "I love you!")

I love seeing the children thinking about how to put love into action. I love having an Advent focus that involves the whole family, keeps our focus on what really matters during the holiday season, and builds our familial ties.

The thing I love about it most, though, is the beautiful allegory of how we can actively prepare our hearts to receive Christ anew each Christmas season. We can choose to keep our hearts full of love, soft and ready to receive whatever God has in store for us. We can choose to keep our eyes open for opportunities to love others tangibly, just as God gave the world the tangible sign of His love through the gift of the baby Jesus. We can choose to view our families and loved ones as outlets for lovin', instead of focusing on what we want to be receiving from them. We can choose to focus on love and joy and peace and forgiveness and goodwill.

And there is always the hope that practicing these choices during the Advent season will help us keep our hearts soft and ready the rest of the year as well!





No photo of our manger yet--we have not yet gotten out the Christmas decorations, so I am running behind! I'll add one when we unearth everything, hopefully this weekend. : ) By the way, starting to fill the manger late in the Advent season makes it harder to get it soft and cozy by Christmas Eve, so I encourage either using a small manger or starting at the beginning of the Advent season.

And for those of you wondering, I am trying a new thing called a "Blog Hop," where blogs can write on the same topic and you can "hop" from blog to blog to read everyone's ideas on the same topic. They were having the blog hop on topics I was already going to write about, so I thought I would join in. Could be fun! So if you are interested in seeing other people's Christmas traditions, click on the MckLinky link above, and it should take you to the list. . . if all works well my first time trying this!