Christmas Stories

After dinner last night, my girls asked me to read to them. Thanks to the boxes of Christmas stuff taking up my entire dining room, we have books about Christmas that have been in storage for a year. It's nice to have fresh material to read. I read them a cute book with a sheep finger puppet built into it. You tell the story of how the lamb went to the manger to see Baby Jesus and perform the appropriate actions with the finger puppet, very fun.

I love reading stories about the first Christmas but, after 5 times of reading that book, I was done. I went searching through our Christmas box for Max Lucado’s “The Crippled Lamb”. This one is about a crippled lamb that keeps baby Jesus warm in the manager. (I need to get some different books or my kids are going to think that Baby Jesus was raised by lambs.)

In my search for “The Crippled Lamb” I tossed a couple of other books on the floor to keep the kids occupied. They let me read “The Crippled Lamb” once and then they brought me a book I had discarded. “The Night Before Christmas”, you know “T’was the night before Christmas and all through the house….”

This book was a big hit. The girls were both worried about Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, “Why isn’t he leading the sleigh, Mommy?” They were enthralled with the stockings and Santa Clause and the presents. The girls even tried to figure out how to put their finger aside their nose, give a nod, and rise up the chimney. We read this book over and over until bath time. Ariel took the book upstairs with her and hid it in her bedroom so she could look at it after lights out.

Why is Santa Clause infinitely more interesting than Baby Jesus? Where is the cool Baby Jesus book where the Holy Infant does more than just lay in the manager? I really want my kids to know that Christmas is about love, not gifts. And when Christmas is about gifts, it’s about giving, not receiving. Should I resign myself now to the fact that just like my childhood Christmas Eve is going to be all about Santa?