[Tax-chick]

Although I think this doll idea is silly, I don't quite agree with the critic, either:

We do our children a disservice if we make Him anything less – if, in Phillips' lingo, we make Him "small."

Jesus was a real, human baby. He WAS small, for a while. The Son of God chose incarnation as a human baby for a reason, just as He had a reason for the words and actions of His adult life.

We had our own version of a "Jesus baby doll" last Christmas - our son Allen, born on 12/22/01. We hugged and rocked and fed and changed him, just as the Blessed Mother did the Infant Jesus. This year we get "the Second Christmas," where the baby is a year old and tries to eat the presents and knock down the tree ... and we recall that Our Lord was once one year old, too.

I think this author is devaluing the Incarnation, the true humanity, as well as Divinity, of Jesus, in his emphasis.

[sheltonmac]

Today, we only see the "cuddly" Jesus. That is the image our children are presented each year at Christmas. Sure, Jesus came into the world as a baby, but his birth was only the beginning. They need to know the whole story.