Nativity Scenes

For the most part our Christmas is pretty secular but as I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my favorite parts of Christmas has always been the advent calendar. Now that our children are grown up we just tie bows on the days leading up to the 24th but on the 24th we still tie a small nativity scene.  We have many now made from many different materials and from many different countries. Some of these hang on the tree but some sit on shelves. Of course, in the way collections grow, we also have received as gifts and bought a few larger ones. This year I arranged the nativity scenes on the top of the china cabinet. They are not hung yet but I usually hang another collection in the glass panels – the small Christmas quilts we get every year from my sister in law.

Here are two of the larger ones – one from South America and one from Africa. They could be part of another collection too – my carved gourd collection