My Favorite Christmas Decoration

Each Christmas, I foolishly envision an elegant and perfectly decorated house, like many of my affluent neighbors have, only to realize at some point during the holidays that a home decorated by children is not only "practically perfect in every way," but also way more fun. As the holiday season comes to a close, I want to pause to remember my favorite Christmas decoration of 2007.

As usual, the kids were so excited this year to get out the Christmas buckets and start digging through them. You know how as a child you look for certain things that are special to you--your stocking with your name on it, a handmade ornament from school, the singing and dancing blue Christmas moose ( a present from Gordon's mom that is a family treasure)--these are the things that make Christmas magical.

For Amy, it was the little plastic Nativity set given many years ago by Aunt Jill to Heidi (then age 3). If I recall correctly, Heidi spent much of that particular Christmas Eve sliding "Baby Genius" and the camel (her favorite animal) down the cardboard roof of the stable with great delight. But, I digress. Amy, too, loves this sweet Nativity set. The plastic people are all "pleasantly plump" and just right for small hands to hold. She asked me if she could pick a place to put it. Amy found just the right spot--in the base of our artificial ficus tree in our entryway. The basket that holds the tree has a bunch of that Spanish mossy stuff (crafter's lingo) to disguise the fact that there is no dirt in the pots of fake foliage. Amy thought this was absolutely perfect because it looked just like "straw." It wasn't exactly the location that I would have chosen, but I could see her point: it did look like straw.

I left her to her work and I went on with mine. It wasn't until a few days later that I noticed the little Nativity set in the pot. All of the figures were kind of clumped together. The wise men were at such a steep angle that they were nearly falling over. The sheep was perched on top of the cow. Thinking that they had been bumped and knocked over, I started to stand the little people back up. Immediately "Mom alarms" started going off in my head. "STOP! STOP!" they told me. And I did. I looked again at the little scene Amy had arranged. Yes, all of the people were leaning in as far as they could go. Yes, the sheep was on top of the cow, but not on accident. Each figure in the set had been carefully placed in a way that he could be as close as possible to the most important piece in the scenario--the tiny one nestled snuggly down in the straw--Baby Jesus. I said a quick prayer of gratitude that I did not disturb that precious sight, and I vowed to try to recapture the enthusiasm of a little child in her understanding of what most of us tend to forget. If we had been there that special night, wouldn't we have done anything--traveled any distance, leaned as far forward, climbed on a fence (or a cow), peeked through a crack in the stable wall-- if only to get just one inch closer to the Son of God?

It is my hope that all of us will keep this simple story in our hearts as we try to draw near to the Savior in this coming new year.