Christmas morning the babies found a gift from God under our tree. They read all their names on the tag and opened it to find baby Jesus inside.
I know, kind of corny, but it’s my little way of putting the focus on why we have Christmas. We all love presents of course, but the fact I’m sure none of you are unaware of, there’s so much emphasis on that aspect of this Holy Day so we hold off on the gifts a bit and bring them out after we’ve read the Christmas story from Luke and sung a Christmas hymn.
We also do this because we like to see the babies squirm in anticipation and we love hearing “when are we gonna open presents” 50,000 times.
Unfortunately, the lovely little stick manger I made a couple years ago was destroyed by our resident Demolition Man so baby Jesus really had “no crib for a bed” this year, not even a manger. I could tell opening gifts with this wild man on the loose was gonna be trouble.
He was so nice about it all last year. This year he was banished to a box. Sorry baby.
After a few pictures there was more destruction as the babies got into their stockings and the first round of gifts we put out. We spread the gifts out over the 12 day season of Christmas so it’s not so overwhelming and so we can celebrate each day. They love getting up for 12 days and finding another gift under the tree.
And I love that our living room looks like Tasmania for an entire 12 days.
Blessed Christmas!
Oh Aubri! Do you really stretch the gifts for the full 12 days? We talked about doing that a couple of years ago, but we had company and it just didn’t happen. I thought of it this year and shooshed it out the window with all the excitement. I’d love to give a real go next year. Tell me how you work it out…
Thanks!
Love the gift of baby Jesus. Not at all corny. We set up our manger but hide the Baby and don’t bring Him out til Christmas.
Thanks Jenny, I might try to make a post on some of our Christmas traditions. Each year I learn what works and what doesn’t or what I’d like to do differently next year also some of the things I do “on accident” end up sticking!
Spreading gifts throughout the 12 days can be a challenge, especially when YOU can’t wait to give them! We just pick one for each child for each day. We end up having enough to do that, since we don’t get to see family for any part of Christmas gifts come in the mail, which makes waiting “easier”. Also, they’re young, gifts are easy, don’t have to be big, unwrapping a TOOTHBRUSH is super fun for them!