While there are many variations about which day or night it is celebrated, we chose to celebrate the Epiphany, or the arrival of the Magi to worship Jesus, on January 6th, twelve days after Christmas, and to call that night our Twelfth Night.
Incidentally, Shakespeare was asked to write a play for the celebration of this day. It’s called … wait for it … Twelfth Night. Yup.
Anyway, we had forgotten to give some presents to the kids for Christmas because they were so well hidden that even we couldn’t find them, I mean … we planned to give the kids special presents on this day to represent the gifts that the wise men brought to Jesus. So we started by reading Matthew 2:1-12.
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” …After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Then we talked about the gifts that we can still give to Jesus: the gifts of our hearts.
I think next year, we will make more of a devotion out of this, but since this is our first year really celebrating Twelfth Night, I was really winging it.
Then Prince and Princess opened their presents (books and new pajamas) and we sang, of course, “We Three Kings.”
You know me. I like to make Text-to-Self Connections for my children. I like to help them connect to the books we read so that they can gain further insight and engage them in more personal reflection.
And it’s just plain fun.
We actually gave Prince the newest book in this series called Llama Llama Holiday Drama, but since this is the first one that introduces Little Llama and his red pajamas, I thought I’d show you to explain Prince’s red pajamas. I realized a little too late that the children’s sleepwear pattern I have (a hand-me-down) is a bit ’80s. A little too much taper at the ankle. Sorry kiddo. I’ll try again.
Princess dressed up as little Cindy Lou Who, “who was no more than two.” We even made sure she had the antennae.
As for Sweet Pea, well, there are only so many nights that you can stay up past midnight sewing. I mean, really. You need to save some of those nights for other things, like talking to your husband while lying on blankets in front of the fire, or reading the last book in a series that is, in a word, gripping. Or painting another wall in your house. Or making cinnamon rolls.
Speaking of which, I also found out later that there is even a traditional bread you are supposed to eat on Twelfth Night called king’s cake (or some variation) that is something like cinnamon rolls twisted into a large circle. Well! That sounds like fun! But now I have to wait a year.
And stay up past midnight doing something else.
