On Youtube, a lot of creators participate in a monthly project called Vlogmas, where they try to post a video each day before Christmas. I always enjoy watching them, so I decided to try my own version here on the blog. (Just Monday through Friday, with weekends off for catching up!) My goal is for these posts to be a little respite from the daily craziness of this month, filled with simple ideas and encouragement for a peaceful Advent season.
For Day One, I thought I would share one of my favorite Advent books, Room for a Little One: A Christmas Tale by Martin Waddell (affiliate link), and an activity we do that helps my kids prepare for baby Jesus’s birth.
From Catholic Culture: “Preparing the manger is the practice of preparing a soft bedding in the manger for the Christ Child by using little wisps of straw as tokens of prayers and good works performed through the penitential season of Advent. This is originally a French custom that quickly spread to other countries. Every night the child is allowed to put in the crib one straw for each act of devotion, good work or sacrifice performed. ‘Thus the Christ Child, coming on Christmas Day, finds an ample supply of tender straw to keep Him warm and to soften the hardness of the manger’s boards’ (Francis Weiser, Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, 1958).”
