When I was growing up, my mom had the most amazing collection of nativity sets. She was always really intentional about searching for a set anytime she traveled and the result was an incredible representation of Jesus’ birth from a variety of different cultures. While the collection itself was really amazing to see all over our house during the holiday season, it was what she did with those sets that made Christmas morning something to remember.
Since Jesus wasn’t born until Christmas morning (well, not historically but you know what I mean), my mom would not set out the baby Jesus in any of her nativity sets. Instead, she would set them aside for Christmas morning.
Then, on December 25th my sisters and I would get up insanely early (as kids do) and before we were allowed to open up presents we had to find all of the baby Jesus’. We called them baby Jeesai. But the most important part wasn’t finding them, it was putting them all back in the right nativity set. That was tough.
First of all, she didn’t set them all up in one area of the house. They were everywhere! But she also had quick a few that looked similar. Like several wooden ones and she would definitely go around and check to see if they were all in the right scene. Then and only then were we allowed to unwrap presents. I mean, what a genius parent move… right? My parents had all the time in the world on Christmas morning to drink their coffee or mimosa and even put in the breakfast casserole. Even as teenagers, we had to work together to find all the baby Jeesai and we may have complained about it but it was always done before presents.
This is probably one of my fondest memories growing up and I know I was probably super annoyed as a kid but lookin back, it was so much fun and a task that we grew to expect every Christmas. Even though we don’t have kids yet, you better believe that I have already started intentionally looking for nativity scenes from places we have lived. It’s time to get my baby Jeesai collection ready!
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