Most of my favorite Christmas Decorations are Nativities. This is the first nativity set that I ever purchased back when our family was small. It is small and simple and felt like a bit of a splurge at the time, but is a treasure to me. In the beginning there was much more moss on the stable. It has become even more humble over the years, and the donkey has lost a chip off of his ear.
The table runner above and the Nativity wall hanging below are two of the few projects that I have ever fully completed from a homemaking night with our church's Relief Society women's groups. I had earlier started a similar fabric nativity of my own design, but I never finished that one.
I fell in love with this little Nativity a few years ago, and purchased it for myself and one for my Mother-In-Law. After she passed a few years ago, I inherited hers. One sits on my desk at work and the other near my desk here at home. It's about nine inches long and 2 inches tall and fits perfectly in small spaces.
I cherish the ones that my daughters and others have purchased for me.
The last one was handmade from olive wood in the Holy Land.
My Mother in Law had a Fisher Price Natativity set much like this one when our children were small. Now that I am a Grandmother myself, I had to purchase one too. This one is out on the cedar chest in our living room (or our toy room as DGD2 calls the living room since when the grandkids come to visit I generally bring up an assortment of toys from the downstairs family room and storage room to keep the younger ones occupied while we are visiting upstairs.) The other nativities are kept high enough so little hands aren't tempted to play with those ones.
The wise men are still making their way to the stable through the "jungle" on the other side of the room. (Or is it a desert oaisis?
There are other nativities, mostly smaller, scattered here and there throughout the house this Christmas. The most recent is the grandest that we have, a gift from my DH, and has the place of honor on the livingroom Mantle. I know that other people may have larger and grander collections than I do, which is all perfectly fine. I am happy for them and I am happy for me. Hopefully all who believe have some sort of remembrance of our Savior during the Christmas season, even if it is only a simple card or illustration of the sacred holy night.
Every Christmas Eve we have the tradition of reading the Nativity Story from Luke and then singing carols together as a family. When our children were young we would act out the parts in costume. I loved coming across this excerpt from President Henry B Eyring's talk in the 2016 First Presidency Christmas Devotional on Youtube where he shares his family's Nativity experiences over the years.
One more wonderful message with another perspective on the Nativity by Elder Holland:
I love nativity sets and I'm so glad I read your post today . . .I just ordered the Fisher Price one!!!! My mother-in-law started mine for me many years ago. They have discontinued the size or I would still be adding to it!! It is a Fontanini plus a few animals from the Holy Land. I have another one upstairs that is a smaller Fontanini set that our Sunday School class gifted to me one year. I have other small random ones throughout.
ReplyDeleteI had to look up the Fontanini website since I'm not familiar with them, and they are beautiful sets! I may have seen them at different displays over the years. All of mine are fairly simple, but I love them anyway!
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