Decorating Adjustments

 I say it every year, but it is always true, I love Christmas time.  The decorations, the songs, the foods, the special events, the movies and TV Christmas specials, the time spent with friends and family- I love it all.  But as I was decorating our home for Christmas this past weekend, I had to giggle at how much that process has changed over the past few years.  Sharing Christmas with our kiddos has brought a whole new spin on Christmas decorating. 

 

I have a beautiful, ceramic byzantine nativity scene.  And I haven’t set it up for four years.  Instead, our main nativity scene (I have several) is a plastic “Little People” brand nativity that was covered in sticky and had to be cleaned with baby wipes before I set it out.  There was a time I would have been horrified to decorate with a little plastic nativity, but now I set it out each year with joy.  It may not be as fancy, but it serves the purpose in an even better way.  You see our kids interact with it constantly which keeps us talking about the miracle of baby Jesus, how he was born in the stable, the shepherds to came to visit him, and the wisemen who brought gifts and worship.  While I will admit the constant play does lead to an occasional missing wiseman, and even one year baby Jesus himself disappeared for a couple days- the sticky fingerprints on the figures bring me joy to know that our kids are learning about and working to understand the truest meaning of Christmas.

I have always loved a big, beautiful tree covered in white lights and decorated with meaningful ornaments that represent our life and family.  Our kids however, also love to decorate the tree for Christmas and they prefer bold colors and most of the ornaments clumped together on 3 branches.  I struggled with this for a few years because I wanted to include (a) in the decorating process, but just couldn’t handle the finished product.  Last year we came up with a much better solution which is now thoroughly enjoyed by both boys, and their mama.  I purchased a six-foot tree that fit in their bedroom.  They picked out their own red lights to string on it and they are allowed to decorate it with their own ornaments however they would like.  I don’t step in and rearrange anything unless it is in danger of falling off and breaking.  They are so proud of their tree, and I am able to enjoy watching them decorate it (sometimes they even rearrange ornaments daily) without feeling any stress about how it looks.

There are many other traditions I have come to make adjustments on such as cookies that look more alien than snowman, pictures that are more precious than posed, listening to the same songs on repeat to practice for programs, and I know there will be many more through the years.  But I have learned to embrace these adjustments with joy- they won’t last forever and I will someday be desperately missing them. 

And my adjustments pale in comparison to the adjustments that were made on that first Christmas.  I can’t even imagine the humility of God taking on the limited form of a human baby.  I can’t fathom birthing one of my children in a stable because there was no place else for us to go and no one to attend to me but my husband.  I can only imagine how different it would be to share my baby for the first time with a group of strangers visiting instead of my friends and family.  But I will always give glory to God for making those adjustments- his perfect plan was far better than anything I might have considered.  And so, I will celebrate this season with joy and thankfulness, clumps of ornaments, crazy cookies, and a sticky plastic nativity- because our whole family is celebrating God’s best gift of all.