Saturday, December 11, 2010

the Nativity

I love all things Christmas
the tree...
my angel

gingerbread houses
check out this cool one from Trader Joes!

...snowmen...I have a minor collection

the jolly ol' elf...like him a bit
love the Santa that my brother in law got us from somewhere in Europe!

but I would have to say the Christmas collection that I cherish the most is the Nativities...
I have a few...

this was my first ever...my mom bought it for me when I was in college at some after Christmas sale...love the simplicity of just  Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

this is our Christmas Tree Angel that Beau got me for Christmas last year...
she is 'the angel' and is holding the star of Bethlehem and the nativity scene is done in relief on the bottom of her skirt! I LOVE it!

a tiny little one that I ordered from some sort of school fund raiser one year...
tiny and sweet...the figures are between 1 1/2-2 inches...

Wilson set this one up this year...
the 3 wise men out front and then everyone else is in the stable facing Jesus...
it's so sweet that I haven't changed it to look more visually appealing...
I know that looking at everyone's back doesn't look right...
but I'm sure that's what it looked like,
everyone focused on the babe!
and Wilson knew that...

oh...and the wise man in the middle...not so wise anymore...he lost his head this year...but we have gently placed it back on top...need to find some glue!

this was a gift to Madison from a Sunday School teacher or someone one year...
it was from the Dollar store...such a sweet little grouping.

 a trio of silver star ornaments, a gift from my mother in law

 an old fashion ornament of just the family unit...

 a wooden one made by the kids

 another Dollar Store purchase.

and a favorite of mine..."What God Wants For Christmas" Nativity...
...watch for a future blog about this favorite!...

all of my Nativities that are in figure form...not ornaments on the tree...
I let the kids 'play' with
set up...rearrange...move about...
hence...the headless wise man!

None of these were 100's of dollars...but even if they were...
doesn't the Nativity scream out for kids to interact with it...
I want my kids to have a hands on interaction with the nativity...
when Madison was 2 she carried one of the Jesus figures around all the time...
she LOVED baby Jesus...we would even tuck him into bed with her at night!
when they are grown I know they will have many memories of Christmas
memories of making gingerbread houses
and snowmen
and Santa...
but I want one of the memories that is close to their heart
that they cherish
to be the Nativities
...of them playing with Jesus...
that mom let them set up all the different nativities...
let them choose the 'scene'...
and that 'Jesus' wasn't off limits because he was too priceless a piece for kids to play with...that Jesus was/is for everyone...does it real matter that a wise man lost his head...not so much!

6 comments:

Meredith said...

love it! Especially the last part. you are so right. Jesus is for ev everyone and allowing kids to touch feel play with Him is the best tangible lesson ever.

Jan Sheppherd said...

My favorite memory of Christmas is the nativity scene that my Grandmother gave us one year. A very beautiful Italian hand-painted set. I still have it at my sister's house--it miraculously survived our house fire because it was in storage at the time. I will send you some interesting Fb photos Joseph took this year of two nativity scenes. One has a bear and a moose! Love, Jan

Krystle said...

I agree. Almost all my decorations are at kid level. I want Jack to touch and play with them and be excited about them.
Even if that means something gets broken. If it's an heirloom or something really really super spendy that someone got us, then of course it's up high.
But I don't want Christmas to be "off limits"....even if that means two little Mickey snow-globes that I got from JC Penney years ago met their doom this year :)

Linda said...

I LOVE your whole attitude surrounding the nativity groupings. I think we only ever had one and I don't remember letting you or Brook play with it. I think it was more of a "hands off" policy. Now I'm really sorry! Just one of the many hindsite moments I have.

Unknown said...

Beautiful! I love nativity scenes too! I like how you said at the end..."that Jesus was/is for everyone." That's right! You're such a fun mom!

Krista said...

When my nephew was a toddler, he removed Joseph from all the nativities at my sister's and mom's houses! It was so funny to see Joseph-less nativities and then to find the Josephs in random places around the house! That's my favorite nativity memory!