A Christmas Tradition we have starts the first day of December.
We have a little wooden manger that stands in the middle of our table. Beside it is a jar of straw. On the first day of December we draw names. For the rest of the week we do kind things for the person we drew (for example, if I got my brother, I could empty the dishwasher for him or if I got my dad I could bake cookies) and each time we do an act of service or nice thing for our person we get to put a straw in the manger.
We continue doing this all month long and then on Christmas Eve we put baby Jesus in his straw filled manger.
There's a movie that revolves around this idea called the Last Straw and a book called The Giving Manger by Allison Hottinger.
The purpose of this Christmas tradition is to remind us to make room in our hearts for Jesus, serving others instead of yourself, and filling the manger with 'love and service' for Jesus. It gets the focus off of ourselves and to the real reason of Christmas.
It's kind of hard to explain, but it's such a fun and challenging thing we do each year. I recommend trying it!
No comments:
Post a Comment