Christmas Traditions: The Nativity

Once a year my sister and I would race to find our Lord and Savior. Many people spend their entire lives searching for God, but I always knew where to find him: wrapped in newspaper and nestled in a cardboard two-gallon evaporated milk box.

The nativity set that my family has is very special because it was hand crafted by my great-grandparents. My great-grandpa sawed out and stained the barn, and my great-grandma cast the figurines that are all white, which also sort of have that rainbow oil color over them. There are three camels and wise men, two shepherds, sheep, cows, Mary, Joseph, and of course baby Jesus in his manger. These fragile pieces are wrapped tightly up in newspaper and tissue paper and stored in a cardboard box.

The day that my sister and I got to set up the nativity set was also the day the Lord chose one of us to be his favorite for the year. See, we would race to be the one who got to unwrap baby Jesus. For some reason, we felt really special discovering him all nestled up in that ancient newsprint. We always knew to look for the tiniest bundle. The other figurines about his size were the sheep. Unwrapping the sheep was also a favorite, because they were so cute. My sister and I could care less about finding the shepherds or the cows. Baby Jesus and the sheep were typically tucked into the bottom of the box, so we had to unwrap everything else first.

In December, my mom would take the old cardboard box down from the shelf in the pantry, and she would assemble the three piece barn for us. She would tell us to be very careful with the figurines because she didn’t want them broken. You’d think in our yearly races to find Christ, we would have dropped a camel or a shepherd on its head or something, but my sister and I were both speedy and careful. No piece has ever been injured.

After the initial set up of the set, (which took much discussion as we had to determine the best possible placement), my sister and I would secretly move the pieces around about every other day. I really liked it when there was a sheep on each side of the manger (symmetry, hello). My sister liked it when the two of them were nestled together. I might move the camels so that they were all in a row walking towards the barn, but Jess liked it when the wise men were standing next to their steed. I think my mother had her own opinion and would move them as well.

Another thing we had to do about every year was re-glitter the star, which typically hung rather crookedly over the barn. We tried to keep it gold, but then we ran out of gold glitter and made the star red and green instead. I’m pretty sure it’s been stuck like that for the past 11 years.

During Christmas break my freshman year of college, I set up the nativity alone. It was kind of sad to do without my sister there to race me. Yes, I found Jesus, but it wasn’t quite the same. When Jess and I stopped in mid-December the next year, we were both appalled to discover that my mother had set up the nativity herself. She told us that we had waited too long to visit, and that she wanted to enjoy the set during the whole month. We told her that setting up the nativity was our job, and didn’t she understand the childhood nostalgia we indulged in every year when we unpacked it?

This may look unimportant to you, but it means everything to me.

I have my own nativity scene now, but it is not the same. It’s made out of corn husks and it was given to my mom by her aunt. When my mom was offering it to my sister and I after we moved out, Jess and I both wanted it. We agreed that we would share it joint custody, and we’d take turns every other year. I’ve had it for the past three years, because she’s never remembered to ask for it. Plus, I don’t think she ever will, on account of how she and her husband received a really neat nativity set crafted out of newspapers that someone bought for them at Ten Thousand Villages. The disappointing part about my corn husk nativity is that all the pieces are affixed to the floor of the barn, so you can’t have the joy of rearranging them. Plus, no camels. 

Did you already read Christmas Traditions: The Tree ? Because it was a little bit funny and mostly like "Wow. Your family is cool."

Check back Wednesday for the next family tradition that I will share.