The Giving Manger- A Review – The Delight Directed Homeschooler

Disclaimer: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Y’all … Christmas is coming. Do you watch the show Gilmore Girls? Lorelei is is known for saying, “I smell snow.” Well… I smell Christmas! I smell it in the dropping temps and the dying leaves. I smell it in the fires rising from fireplaces around town. It is coming. And I love it! I’ve already confessed on this blog that I am sucker for kids devotional books… well.. take that and multiply it by a lot and you’ll know how much of a sucker I am for all things Christmas and advent. We have built so many family traditions in our nearly 18 years of marriage. Some have carried over from my childhood and my husband’s childhood…but much of it is new and something we’ve created with our kids and I hope they will carry at least some of our family into their own families one day. Through the Homeschool Review Crew, we were given the chance to review the Giving Manger from WorthyKids.

The Giving Manger from WorthyKids provides a great opportunity for a new family Christmas advent tradition. One that will help your family shift the focus of Christmas from getting to giving. The Giving Manger comes with a hardback storybook, beautifully illustrated by Emily King. The book explains how the pieces all work together and helps get kids excited about giving throughout the Christmas season. In addition to the storybook, the Giving Manger comes with a wooden manger, a bundle of straw, and a wooden baby Jesus.

The Giving Manger is more than a children’s book, it is an experience that encourages everyone in the family, regardless of age, to use their talents and resources to bless other people with acts of kindness throughout the Advent season. Creativity is encouraged as people look for ways to serve each other and the community. At the beginning of Advent (usually the first week after Thanksgiving or the first week of December), the empty manger is placed in a central location in the home. Every time someone completes and act of kindness, they place a piece of straw (provided) in the empty manger. The idea is to have the manger filled with straw for the Baby Jesus on Christmas morning. Families work together to spread love and kindness and experience joy in the process.

The Giving Manger comes with a hardback storybook, beautifully illustrated by Emily King. The book explains how the pieces all work together and helps get kids excited about giving throughout the Christmas season. In addition to the book, the Giving Manger includes a wooden manger, pieces of straw, and the Baby Jesus. It really is a sweet design and such a beautiful addition to any Christmas set up.

At the end of the book, there is a section titled, “Manger Moments.” On these pages, the reader can find service ideas. The ideas are listed in the following ways:

For Children
For Teens
For Families

The book also includes a page titled, “Manger Memories” where families can record their service through the years.

Holiday traditions can really serve to bond our families together and with the community at large. They can help in forming a sense of belonging. Having traditions that are steeped in Scripture and doing what God calls us to do can give us a greater sense of purpose and knowing that we are players in an eternal story.

BUT WAIT… THERE’S MORE!!!! Are you interested in winning a Giving Manger for your very own?!?! Click the image below to enter to win a Giving Manger from Worthy Kids:

What are your family’s favorite traditions. We love to go Christmas light hunting throughout the season. We typically have a gingerbread house contest at some point. Every Christmas morning, we make a stack of birthday pancakes for Jesus and read the final part of our advent devotional by the light of the Christmas tree. It’s coming. I can smell it (quite literally at this moment because my daughter and her friend are baking mint cookies as I’m typing this).