Merry Christmas All Year Long

Merry Christmas All Year Long

Welcome to Christianity Oasis. This is Merry Christmas All Year Long from our Sojourn With Luz Leigh Collection. We hope you enjoy this enlightening reading and it helps you on your own be-YOU-tiful Christian walk.

Click the link below to enhance your faith:

Click the link below for Christian Faith Studies:

Sojourn With Luz Leigh

Merry Christmas All Year Long

Written by Luz Leigh - 31 December 2008

The Christmas decorations have been taken down from their places around the house and now are back in the closet for another year. Not many days ago, as I listened to my cousin entertain us on the local radio station, I opened the closet, pulled out the boxes and began the routine which is a very important part of Christmas to me. There in a cardboard box, tied with knitting yarn, is the little Nativity scene that I bought many years ago. I can remember the excitement I felt as I brought the little box home to share it with my daddy.

We had never had a Nativity scene and now that I was working, I decided we would have one. So I visited the five and dime store on the square near the office where I worked. There were several selections, but I chose this one. It was the smallest, and probably the least costly. So, in December 1956 I started a tradition that continues for my family and me.

When the boxes containing the decorations are taken from the closet, the first box that is opened is the one containing the Nativity scene. The red velvet cloth is placed on the lower bookshelf (so small children can better see it); then the "baby Jesus" in his little wooden manger, with its hay, is set out. After that Mary, Joseph, the animals, the shepherds and the wise men join the baby. Over the years two of the little sheep have suffered damage to a leg or two. Never mind ... we just lean one against the manger and the other one against the leg of a shepherd.

When my children were small they were delighted to "walk" the little figures onto the coffee table as I read the Christmas story from the Bible. Now because of the age of the figures, my grandchildren are not allowed to play with them. However, not to worry. When my granddaughter was about two years old, I went down to WallyWorld and bought some of the fabric that one can use to make a cloth Nativity scene. The figures in it are somewhat larger, but are unbreakable. We have that scene placed where young children may move the figures around while telling the story in their own fashion or just hold them. That scene comes out of its box second in the order of decorating.

At the time the decorations are taken down, the procedure is reversed. All decorations are removed, the larger cloth Nativity scene is packed away and then the older, more fragile scene is carefully and lovingly placed in its box. Baby Jesus is the last to be removed from the shelf.

Today I will sit and read over the many Christmas cards I received from friends and family. Don't know about you, but when the cards come in before Christmas day, sometimes I am rushed and do not take enough time to fully receive the messages. Besides, this helps keep the Christmas spirit alive.

Merry Christmas ... not just in December, but throughout the year.

The list of collected writings by Luz Leigh:

Shared Thoughts

Copyright © 2000-2024 All Rights Reserved.