Truthfully, to us it seems very nice that in this era that there is still someone who prepares a crib in the family and tries to involve others around it. , when Christmas is reduced to an exchange of more or less useless and expensive gifts, to bright angels hanging everywhere along the streets of our cities, to large Christmas trees with coloured balls.

Another aspect we would like to stress is the importance of emotions; they are so important that consumerism relies on them to sell its products. Certainly reducing everything to emotions is not a good thing, because a human being is not only made of emotions, but also of feelings, reason, will, etc., however they have an important role in our lives. Let’s think, for example, how many subjects we were able to learn in school because of the positive emotions that the friendly and likeable teacher aroused in us! How many values can be transmitted in the family if they are conveyed by positive emotions! The emotion aroused by a hug, by a kind word, by a smile is much more important than long discussions

Maybe we should understand our emotions better, what passes in our soul: feelings of joy or sadness, nostalgia or disappointment to learn how to deal with them. For this reason we should help our children to express their emotions, not to suppress them, as it was once when a child was told; “Don’t be a cry baby!
This way we will be able to better understand the emotions of others in the face of certain events. It is not enough to convince people that one thing is right and must be done; the other person will never be able to do it if, within him, this thing is associated with negative emotions.
For this reason, associating Christmas with positive emotions, such as those aroused by this grandmother, rather than being an obstacle, can be of help to approach the mystery of the incarnation with greater attention in the future.
We remember the emotions produced from the play by Eduardo De Filippo in the dialect of Naples:” Christmas in the Cupiello house”. The crib was a kind of alienation so as not to face the real problems of the family, but in the case of this mother-in-law, it seems to be a way to pass on a greater love for Jesus to all the family. The question that the protagonist of the play repeatedly asked his son was: Do you like the crib? ; it seems that in this case he has a positive answer: Yes we like it, because it can be an opportunity to fill us with positive emotions about this important anniversary.

(M. and R. Scotto)