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| Real candles burning on our tree |
We celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. That's when my wife Esther's family and others in Switzerland celebrate Christmas. That's when they celebrate Christmas in Mexico where we lived for three years.
When our children, Marisa and Mattias were still at home, we would have a big meal Christmas Eve, attend a Christmas eve service, then return home to have a short program before opening gifts. We would light the real candles on the Christmas tree and until the candles burned down, we usually sang carols and read the Christmas story from Luke 2 in English, Spanish and German. Before we went to bed, we put the baby Jesus in the manger for the first time. We had learned this tradition from Mexican Christmas celebrations. Soon Adam and Erica were added to our family and we continued the tradition.
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| Fontanini figurines worshiping the newborn |
Then came grandchildren. It became more difficult to coordinate everything with little ones under foot. Esther decided to engage them in play with the manger scene at our house. Over the years she collected Fontanini figurines representing the various players in the Christmas story. She would read about each character that came along with the figurines.
When our grandkids came over on other occasions, we would read stories to them, as all good grandparents are wont to do. They selected their own favorites from our vast collection of children's books. They discovered the "The Beginners Bible" and were fascinated about the stories in them, especially about Jesus. When Christmas rolled around last year (2021) Esther decided to have the Christmas story reenacted while we read each portion of the story from the children's Bible.
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| Getting ready to move the figurines |
Our granddaughters really got into the reenactment! They moved the figurines from one side of the living room to get to the manger scene, where they would place them in their appropriate spot. A new tradition was born! Now we need to find a similar children's Bible in German and Spanish!
Merry Christmas 2022
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| Abuelito reading the stories with a granddaughter |
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| Anticipation |
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| Star ready to lead the Wise Men |
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| Granddaughters sing carols around the tree |
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