Like many households, we got our Christmas tree up after Thanksgiving.
It's artificial, but like real trees, it has its imperfections. The top branches seem thicker than the bottom ones and the top branch, the one that's supposed to stick straight up, has a bend in it. I could bend it straight, but it gives some realness to its unreality.
Regardless, like the Christmas decorations of my youth, this tree will be up until the 12 days of Christmas or, in other words, through Epiphany. We're so quick to celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus in the weeks coming up to Christmas, we fail to honor the whole Christmas story including the wisemen!
And so the decorations are up for the duration.
My nativity scene has been scaled back some, though. Not because of any cost cutting measures. The reality is that some of the figures have fallen on hard times...they've fallen on the hard floor and have broken.
Some of their falls were due to grandbabies who got ahold of the figurines before Gramma could grab them. Some fell victim to my clumsiness. No matter what, they're toast, plain and simple.
So it's a bit smaller party in the stable scene. There's a donkey, cow and sheep. there's a wiseman (note the singular term) a shepherd and Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus. The important thing is the three main characters remain.
My girlfriend told me her family had received a nativity set carved from olive wood. They lost baby Jesus and replaced him with a swaddled napkin complete with pen-placed eyes, nose and smile.
I got my Family Christian bookstore catelog today and there were other nativity scenes to purchase. There's even a Veggie Tales one!
No matter what the characters look like, it's the story that counts. The fulfillment of prophecy. Our Savior is born! Alleluia!
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