scenes from a nativity

as a PK, you can be assured that i have a nativity set or five in my house.  a few i keep up year round, the rest only get see the light of advent.



this is the nativity set that my parents have given me piecemeal since i've been married.  it is a fenton glass set, which were made in the 1990s/early 2000s.  each year the company came out with a different piece - first the holy family, then shepherds, wise men, angels, animals (i'm unsure of the order).  my mom has the complete set that some day i will receive.  this set resides in my china cupboard, middle shelf, where everyone can see it.

incidentally, that's our wedding cake topper in front of it.  it has a serendipitous story to tell, maybe some day.




this is the candle nativity i bought through the vermont country store.  the angels were all bought separately so the set is made up of 4 candle sets.  the blue angel and the little angels i got this year.  very vintage.




holy family, batman!

my pap painted this ceramic set many many years ago.  my mom brought it out during the holidays when i was growing up, and after we moved it sat, unloved, in a box with other unloved, forgotten christmas decorations.  several years ago i rescued it during the purge, and it sat in a curio case until a couple months ago when we redid the computer room and gave the curio to grams.  i didn't want to put the set away so i set it out on my bookcase.  the boy has since reclaimed the bookcase as a "level" in his pretend mario game that he has established in that room.

however, i had no clue that catwoman and the penguin were present at jesus' birth.  i guess the four gospels let that little bit out of the christmas story.   and that's how the easter bunny got involved with jesus.

oh, this is just an aside, but i can't resist adding this photo (before it gets lost in my flickr stream forever:



hubby's grandpa made this jacob's ladder toy for hubby when he was little.  there's a wooden notched block that flips over the bars.  the boy inherited it and somehow it found its way to the computer room.  it is now what i call "the owlery" (me and my harry potter addiction!).  perhaps the owls (and the bald eagle) also delivered good news of the christ child's birth?

when the boy was a toddler we got him the fisher price nativity set.  it was a nativity set we knew he could play with and not harm.  every year we'd get it out from the closet and set it up under the coffee table in the living room.  the coffee table is gone now, but we brought the set out for the little ones to play with.  they seem to like the palm trees.  i got tired of finding its pieces scattered around the living/dining rooms so i found a basket to put them in for the remainder of the season.  and then i'll have to find the figures which i'm pretty soon got mixed with their other little people toys.

we bought another set and gave it to the boy's nursery class, in memory of a little boy who died from meningitis.  that set sits on a window sill in the kiddos' sunday school room, where other children play with it too.  

we have a couple other nativity sets that i didn't put out this year.  one is a blue mother of pearl ceramic set that people from my old church gave us when we got married.  every year that set was under our christmas tree, surrounded by deer and little houses.  and yes, baby jesus makes his appearance christmas eve/day - he is absent during advent, and mary and joseph admire an empty manger.  i haven't had this nativity set out for a couple of years.  maybe next year it'll make a return appearance!

the boy also has a small hard rubber nativity scene that his sunday school teacher from hubby's old church gave him many years ago.  i forgot to get it out this year (along with MM's white lighted tree, which also sat in the boy's room).  i surmise the set got lost in the knickknacks box in the closet.

this year mom got out a nativity set that they'd gotten as a gift from the same people who made my set.  it is a painted ceramic native american nativity set, with bears, coyotes and buffalo instead of camels and sheep and cattle.  it is a beautiful set.  mom got it out for the boy to enjoy, and he loves it.  mom said after the holidays she would pack it up and send it over for the boy to keep in his room (this set hadn't seen the light of day for almost 20 years too).

we also have nativity tree ornaments, including a peanuts nativity (lucy is mary, charlie brown is joseph), plastic a-frame style ornaments i'd gotten as a kid in church, a glass and mirror ornament that i no longer hang becos the figures are loose, and an ancient tear drop ornament set that mom got down in fortress when i was little.

yeppers, we gots lotsa nativity sets.