A Doll Bed for Baby Jesus

 "To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is the Messiah, the Lord. "
Luke 2:11

The tradition started the Christmas of 2005.

I remembered the doll bed my Dad made for me as a little girl.  I was about 5 years old when he gave it to me.

Handmade out of Oak.  A piece of plywood for the bottom.

It was something I remembered playing with in my room as a child.  I had a big doll;  I used to put her to bed there. She and the doll bed went together.

I know I must have spent hours playing with the doll and that doll bed.... putting stuffed animals there in addition to the doll.  I must have had fond memories of it for my parents to have kept it for me for so long and for me to have held onto it throughout the years too.

What prompted me to get it down from the attic that Christmas was a special Christmas time we had at a MOPS (Mother's of Preschoolers) meeting that year.  People were sharing how they put Christ at the center of their Christmas season.  It really put a spark in my heart.

Later that day I remembered the doll bed.  No it wasn't a manger, but we could make it like one.  Why not have our own manger; something my Daddy made with his own hands?  He loved carpentry and simple wood working.  I just wanted Jesus to come more alive for our then five year old son, Joseph.

So I got the bed down from the attic, dusted it, waxed it and placed it on the hearth.  It has been on our hearth every Christmas since then.  We put straw in it the week of Christmas and we place the baby Jesus doll there on Christmas morning.

The first Christmas we did this, I told Joseph before he went to bed, to wake me up in the morning as soon as he found the baby Jesus doll.  That night I got up in the middle of the night and went to the couch for awhile.  I eventually fell asleep there about 5am and was awoken a couple of hours later by a little voice, and a little boy holding the baby doll he had found in the manger.  His words to me were simply, "Mommy, He is born!"  I hugged him with the Jesus doll.  It is the Christmas from Joseph's childhood I think I'll remember the most.  We still talk about it.

I love that the manger is reminder of Christ coming down to earth to save us from our sins.  Just thinking he humbled Himself and did such a thing for you and me.  It means everything to me!  I'm so glad He came! 

I love that the manger is a tangible way we can make Jesus come alive more for our children in our family.  I love that my dad made it, because when I look at it too, I remember him and all that he means to me still as my earthly father.

I asked Joseph who is now 11, what his favorite memories are of Christmases of the past?  What were his favorite things we did as a family?  Do you know what his FIRST answer on the spot was?  Yes, that's right....  finding baby Jesus in the manger.

I'm so glad I brought this doll bed down out of the attic six years ago.

Here Joseph is at age six, our second year of using the manger.

And in 2010.

And here is our Philip two years ago.

I will take pictures of them again this year.

We always change how we decorate the manger.  Sometimes we put a crown there, or a star, or a nativity set for the boys to play with. 

This year Joseph draped Christmas lights over it.  I am putting our Jesse Tree next to it.  The Jesse Tree is one of our Advent devotions this season. 

 Whatever we creatively do each year, we try to make it special. 

And on a side note.... every member of our family participates in some way with the manger.....even the cats think it is special.  Yes, yes....  I have to mention them too.  Our sweet Sammie has laid there in years past, as well as our Piccolo.....right on top of the straw.   Even they made visits to the manger.  I have to chuckle with that one.  I wonder if Piccolo will do that again this year?  If he does, he'll have to move over for the baby Jesus. 

 Jesus,  You are the reason we celebrate.  You are the true star of Christmas, the stable born king.....