This past Sunday, St. Nicholas came to visit the children in our Sunday School program. It was the commemoration of his Feast Day on the church calendar. Since it fell on Sunday this year, it was a perfect time for him to come and visit. He shared with the children the story from the Bible of the visitation of the angel Gabriel to Mary. The kids were completely silent in awe. I heard Xavier lean over to Veronica at one moment and whisper, "Isn't that Santa Claus?". Her response, "No, it's Saint Nick!".
I don't know how you explain the whole "Santa Claus" thing at your house, but for us, he originates with a holy man named St. Nicholas. Our attempts to express this sort of failed with us after watching Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Which Veronica proceeded to ask, "Can I please ride in Santa's sleigh". And then after hearing Christmas songs like, "Up On The Housetop", again Veronica asks, "He goes down our chimney?". I don't want to steal away from their imagination of the magic of Christmas, but I do want them to remember the focus is on the birth of Christ.
St. Nicholas brought each child a gift, a foam Nativity set that we could build at home as a family. Which we proceeded to do on Sunday night. While Veronica is so careful with her baby Jesus, Xavier has already misplaced his. Here's our conversation:
Me: "Xavier, where is your baby Jesus?"
Xavier: "I don't know I lost him."
Me: "Can you remember where you saw him last?"
Xavier: "I think I left him in the bathroom."
Me: "What, you left baby Jesus in the bathroom!"
How are you sharing the good news of Christmas to your family?
1 comment:
The playmobile Nativity set was the first thing Elise and Emmett got out of my decoration boxes when they came down from the attic...Elise started crying because she couldn't find baby Jesus. I said from the back of the tree, "I think we lost baby Jesus"...then Stewart started laughing because it reminded him of the oft quoted line from Taladegah Nights..."Thank You Baby Jesus". To correct it all we read Luke 2 everyday.
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