Mom had lots of Christmas decorations. She saved all the art work we did as children, which was especially fun because we often had the same teachers. There were four Rudolphs with big red noses. There were four angels and four Christmas trees. Some of the art pieces were originals, though. My brother made an angel from a reader's digest in one class. Each page was carefully folded down and spray painted gold. The angel's Styrofoam head bobbled around on a wire and her doily wings never stayed flat.
Early on in our adult lives, Mom started buying us girls Christmas dishes to help us decorate our own homes. I was so excited to start my collection of Christmas dishes; I would pour over the catalogs looking for new pieces of Winterberry. Now, on the first Sunday of Advent, we clean out the cupboard, put away our daily dishes, and put in the Christmas dishes. The Christmas dishes heightens our awareness of the season, reminding us every night that we await the birth of Christ.
The Advent wreath goes in the middle of the table until Christmas Eve and the manger scene gets set up in the living. I think setting up the manger scene is one of my sharpest memories. How I loved to unwrap each piece and talk about who they were and where they should be.
The Wise Men went at the farthest end of the table since they would arrive after Christmas. The angel would attach precariously to the peak of the stable, and the animals would surround baby Jesus. Except for "the evil lamb". One of the lambs in my mom's manger scene made us all shiver in fear. We dubbed him "the evil lamb". He was lying on his stomach, feet tucked in. A bit stubby looking. His head unnaturally turned to look directly over his back. Not possible in the real world. We found him unsettling, so every year, we hid him somewhere in the room. Far, far away from baby Jesus, who seemed too new and fragile to deal with the devil. In time, we knew Jesus would put Satan in his place, but while he was still a baby, we were protective. Mom would periodically find the lamb during the season and place him back among the animals. We couldn't let bygones be bygones, though. As soon as she wasn't looking, we hid him again.
Finding our own traditions has been fun. We never put baby Jesus in the manger scene until after Midnight Mass on Christmas eve. We play lots of Christmas music and decorate the whole house. We get everyone a new ornament every year. This is a joyous season full of music, decorating, and anticipation. Padme got into the spirit of Christmas and started a new tradition at our house this year. Talk about unnatural - check out the giant cat in our manger scene:
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