The Advent House Tradition

The diaper box is back. I mean, the Advent House is out. My husband cringes at the mention and then sight of this Advent tradition. The Monkeys of course love it.

Back in my days of buying large boxes of disposable diapers, one year at the beginning of December I covered one such box with "wood grain" contact paper, cut twenty-four windows and doors in its sides, fitted some cardboard dividers inside, re-wrote the Christmas story onto twenty-four index cards, and invested in a child-play-friendly nativity set. Each morning the Monkeys open another door or window of the Advent House (the covered diaper box), pulling out another few sentences of the Christmas story and another character of the nativity set. By Christmas Eve, the story is complete and all the crèche pieces are out.

I know my Monkeys, so I do not fill the box's rooms with the whole story and all the pieces at the beginning of Advent. Each night after they've gone to bed I put the next day's pieces inside. (Or I wake up at 3 a.m. and realize I have not done it yet, so must creep downstairs and do it.) I also have the story arranged so that in the first several days, two characters of the nativity set come out at a time, making play a bit easier, and somewhat diminishing fights. After a few days, just one character comes out at a time, because after all, the crèche set only has so many people and animals. I really had to hunt for a set that had more than eight or twelve pieces!

Mary and Joseph, the inn keeper and his wife, are out, and the Monkeys arrange and rearrange the scenery pieces -- palm trees, the stable, the inn, a well, the kings' tents.

"When does the Angel come?" asked Monkey1.

"Around the time the shepards show up," I answer.

"That's Jack and Benny," pipes up Monkey2, referring to the shepards named after the two brothers in Matthew Loux's "Salt Water Taffy" series, a favorite one year. I wonder if any pieces will be named or renamed reflecting this year's fascination with Harry Potter.

This year I did wonder how much longer this child-play-friendly set would last, hold the interest, of my Monkeys. I am anxiously awaiting the year when I can set up the crèche set my mother made while pregnant with me, where every piece was hand modeled before being baked in a kiln. A very fragile set that needs to be up on a high and stable surface.

Unsolicited, Monkey1 offered her opinion of our current nativity pieces. "Mommy, it's a good thing we have the Little Peoples Bethlehem set... the baby can't eat them."

Or rather, if he/she tries to eat them, the pieces are too large to be swallowed and can be washed off afterwards.

Yes, next Christmas, and the next and the next and the next... we'll still be needing this child-friendly-play crèche set. What a relief. Traditions are the familiar.