Each year, my family has been enjoying Christmas a bit more! We’ve been truly celebrating Advent during Advent, and Christmas during Christmas. This year, I really wanted to focus on the 12 Days of Christmas – from Christmas Day through Twelfth Night on January 5th, or the Eve of Epiphany (the manifestation of Jesus to the maji). The 12 Days of Christmas quilt itself tells the story: on the upper left, the nativity scene begins at Day 1, and on the lower right, the maji arrive on the eve of Day 12.
This quilt is designed not only as a visual but tangible way to celebrate the 12 days! Every day, for twelve days, your child can pull a small treat out of that day’s pocket. Also in the pocket is a beautiful little card, which shares an aspect of our faith.
Did you know that some believe the 12 Days of Christmas song is actually a catechesis written in code? During the time that the 12 Days of Christmas was written, the Catholics in England and Ireland were undergoing severe persecution. Some believe that the 12 Days of Christmas was created as a way to teach 12 different aspects of our faith in a fun (and covert!) way. Whether or not the story is true, we’ve used the representations of each of the 12 days in our cards as shown below. Each day’s card shows the day of the card (ex: “9th Day of Christmas”), and has a short description of the numeric representation of that number in our faith. Each description is followed by a complimentary image to help the visual learners and add to the teaching. Please forgive the slightly fuzzy image…I laminated the cards so they would hold up during use, and the sheen on them doesn’t photograph well!
I look forward to hearing from you on how your quilt turns out – be sure to send some pics!
