Sunday, December 11, 2005

The Nativity

I have two sisters. When we were kids, we would take turns setting up the different Christmas displays in our house. I assume there were three displays, because there were three of us, and to have less would mean much arguing. At the moment, though, I can only remember two: the Nativity, and a winter village scene. Maybe the third person got to hang up the stockings? It's sad when the memory goes...

The village was not one of the expensive ceramic villages popular today. It had little houses made out of something stronger than cardboard but not so strong as wood, and little plastic people. The people were caroling, and building snowmen, and having snowball fights. We'd use quilt batting for snow, and sometimes we put things under the snow to make hills. We always cut a hole in the batting and put aluminum foil down, shiny-side up, for an ice skating rink (the display came with tiny ice skaters also). Sometimes we'd set up the village under the tree, with the train set. The years we did this the village was often ransacked by The Giant Monster Cat Who Liked To Chase The Train.

Getting to set up the village was always the most coveted job, but the Nativity was fun, too. I never put the people in the traditional pose, with the manger in the center of the stable and everyone surrounding it. My manger was always off in a corner, where there would be more shelter. Mary would be behind it, because she was likely tired-she had just given birth, after all. Joseph would be standing in front of the manger, but he wasn't looking at Jesus. He'd be keeping an eye on all these strangers, protectively shielding his wife and child from them. The animals would be off in the other corner, because Joseph would have shooed them there when they arrived. The shepard was usually standing a little closer to the family than the three kings, since Joseph would have been much more comfortable with someone closer to his own position in life. He probably would have been pretty leery of those kings.

My grandmother had a beautiful, vibrantly painted Nativity that she made herself when she did ceramics. One year, shortly after I moved out on my own, she asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I told her I'd like her to make me a Nativity. This was probably around Thanksgiving, which is not nearly enough time to make and paint all those little figures, but I didn't know that. She never said a word, though, and on Christmas I had my Nativity. The figures weren't individually painted, but instead had what I think is called a "wash." They're white ceramic, with brown brushed over them. I actually like this much better than the painted sets, because it's neutral. Let's face it, the real Holy Family and shepard and kings probably looked much more like Middle-easterners than the pale white they're usually portrayed as in this country. My Nativity people don't look Middle-eastern, but they don't look Anglo-Saxon, either.

When my daughter was little she and her cousin would play with the Nativity, so now the donkey no longer has ears, and one of the camels is missing a foot. But I still love my Nativity. At some point I traded the green felt under the stable for a tan fabric that looks much more like sand, and this year the display is set up in front of a palm plant, which looks kind of cool. But Joseph still stands between the strangers and his family. That's the way it should be, don't you think?

Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 7:17 AM :: 2 Comments:

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