Three Kings Day… have you ever heard of it? Do you celebrate it or at least make note of it when it comes around every January 6th?
Also called Epiphany by some liturgical church traditions, it is also the twelfth day of Christmas. I learned about Three Kings Day many years ago from friends who came from Puerto Rico. Part of their family’s celebration of ‘El Día De Los Reyes’ included setting grass out for the camels just as we might put milk and cookies out for Santa on Christmas Eve.
Along the way I read of another family’s tradition of sewing a special button on each child’s stocking before all the Christmas decorations were put away after Three Kings Day. The button represented something about that child that could be presented as a gift to King Jesus. If the child was a good artist, the button could be a paintbrush or a palette, for example.
Before you put the stockings away, you talk about why you chose the button you sewed on for them to use it as a teaching moment. I really like this way to encourage your children to find out who God made them to be and help them find ways to live for Him just the way He made them.
I loved the idea of extending the celebration of the birth of Jesus by another couple of weeks and so one year I decided to create buttons for my kids’ stockings. Sadly, one year was as far as it went but I still think it’s a great idea.
Rather than purchase fancy expensive buttons for my children’s stockings, I created buttons out of shrink plastic. I drew the image on the plastic, colored it with Sharpie markers, cut them out, punched two button holes with a hole punch and shrank in the oven according to the instructions for the plastic. Two stockings are pictured here but another stocking lives with its girl who is a new mommy. Her button was a paint palette because she is an artist.
While my family doesn’t celebrate Three Kings Day like our friends did, I try to at least be mindful of it every year; to remind myself to live a life of thankful surrender to God with the opportunities He presents me each year to use my gifts, talents, and abilities to bless Him and others. So, as we close out our Watchful Waiting Joy Advent journey with Three Kings Day, may you be encouraged to do the same!
Would you like to read the Three Gifts for Our King devotional and journal Three Kings Day in your Bible? See my previous blog post to read the devotional and click on the image below to download the printable.
May we all purpose to find ways to focus our eyes on Jesus in the coming year, not just at Advent.
If you have been journaling through the Watchful Waiting Joy Advent focus with me, I hope you will share your work on social media and tag me so that I can see too!
