Don’t you just love Christmas traditions? My favorites involve reading my favorite stories from The Norman Rockwell Christmas Treasury and
 | The Candle in the Forest: And Other Christmas Stories Children Love – eBook By Compiled & edited by Joe L. Wheeler / Howard Books |
(affiliate link). The kids love when we scoop them up in their pajamas and go look at Christmas lights and maybe even grab a Chick-Fil-a peppermint milkshake. Some of our family’s other favorite Christmas traditions, are posted here.
My husband’s favorite Christmas traditions includes the three types of cookies his mother made in December, then hid from him until Christmas Day. In fact, I remember one Christmas when we were engaged, we were headed to his parent’s house for Sunday dinner. We beat them home from church and walked in the house. He grabbed my hand and pulled me into his parent’s bedroom and shut the door, motioning for silence. Then he proceeded to climb up onto his mom’s dresser, reach up to the top of her wardrobe and pull down tins of homeade cookies. He popped them open, shared some with me, and then returned them to the top of the wardrobe, both of us cracking up the whole time. The man was 28 years old and his mother still thought she was hiding the cookies from him. How long had this been going on? As long as he was tall enough to reach the wardrobe.
Now with a new little one in the house, we are excited to begin a new tradition. My sweet friend, Didi Zayas, has written a precious picture book, A Nest for the Savior. It is the story of a little bird that organizes the animals to fill the manger in order to make a soft bed for baby Jesus. My oldest daughter, the Belle-look-a-like, recently had the opportunity to read the story to an enthusiastic audience of kids at the book’s launch party! You can read about her charity, Daughters of the King, here.
Belle reading A Nest for the Savior
In the back of the book there is an advent activity guide that shows how to create an advent tradition of making your own nest for the Savior, out of things you have at home. And for those time-crunched or creativity-blanked (it happens to all of us, especially at Christmas time) she offers an activity kit with all you need.
On Didi’s website, under “Free Resources”, there is a beautiful art lesson from my talented friend, Marcy, at Project Artwork at Home to go with the book. This is activity is perfect for engaging older kids.
This is a meaningful Christmas tradition to begin, focusing our children on the real point of Christmas. It teaches them that the gift of the Savior is the best gift, and that we can honor that gift with gifts of our own, just like Sadie, the little flying heroine of the story.
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