A Tale of Two Trees

There is a comedian my brothers and I like to quote named Mitch Hedberg, and he has this joke where he says: people always ask me how to get a hold of me and I respond, I can’t tell you where I’m staying, but there are two trees involved.

This blog post reminded me of that joke… anyway, moving on.  I’ve shown you some of my favorite of mom’s nativities… and some of the weirder ones, but she doesn’t end her Christmas decorating with the nativities.  At my mom’s house there have always been two Christmas trees: one fancy one and one ‘family friendly one’.  But both are real trees.

To this day she still has both trees and I love each one in their own way.

The fancy one is always done in white lights and all crystal and gold decorations.  Mom taught me as a young child that this tree was for looking only.  In fact she used to say (and I would repeat and being the bossy person I am, instruct others to do so as well), “Pretty pretty, no touch”.  My mom would always call it out in that tone that only mother’s can achieve: sing songy, yet carries an underlying threat.  Yep, you know the one.

Anyway, back to my mom’s beautiful tree:

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In her current house this one sits upstairs and has mostly crystal and glass ornaments.  For this one she usually finds trees that are more unique , like the one for this year, a little sparse, but it has more character.

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The star is a recent addition from Halls in Kansas City… isn’t it gorgeous?!

 

The other tree in the house has tons of special memories for me.  It always has colored lights and is fun and playful.  This was the tree we decorated as a family.

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And it is full of a lifetime of memories and all of the ornaments that come from countless Mother’s Day out programs.  See how cute I was?

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And I’m totally sure my mom meant for me to have my white cardigan buttoned all the way up to the top for school pictures. 🙂

I love the idea of two trees so that (one day when I have kids) I can have my well decorated tree, but still give my kids the freedom to decorate with plastic baggie angels that I’ll keep until they are almost in their 30s and yes that’s what is in the background of the photo above.

Christmas is just around the corner… are you ready?

I should mention that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree… neither my mother nor I have a single wrapped present under our tree.  Nothing like a last minute wrapping spree!!

Jesus is a Duck?

So yesterday I explained that my mother has an extensive nativity collection. Most of them are beautiful and meaningful.  But today I’m going to show you the ones that lead a little more to the bizarre end of the spectrum.

A few years ago a blog about the Worst Nativity Sets made the circulation around the internet and my twin brother and I had the same reaction: Mom has some of those!! And some of her others are just as bizarre! (see that post here) And although she doesn’t have any made out of bacon, I humbly submit to you my own selection of my mother’s most bizarre nativity scenes.  Although confession, after google-ing around to find the link to the worst nativity blog, I realized I didn’t even photograph mom’s own versions of her Veggie Tale nativity and the nativity painted on the front of a wooden Santa, but there is always next year.

But here’s the thing… I am not willing to state that these are the worst nativities, in fact a couple of them are quite beautiful.  They simply made this list because they are out of the ordinary and not your standard run of the mill Mary, Joseph and the baby.

So without further ado…

The title of this post:

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Our family friend Missy gave my mom this awesome Rubber Ducky nativity that sits in the guest bathroom.  My dad is a preacher and as I mentioned in yesterday’s post they host several holiday parties a year.  At one such party a little boy was in attendance and my mother being the ever fantastic hostess that she is knew that he would LOVE this little nativity, so she brought him over to see her rubber ducky nativity floating in water on the bathroom shelf.   The boy ever so seriously turns to his mother and says… “Jesus was a duck?!?” I’m thinking we made his poor Sunday school teacher’s job WAY harder.  If you want to buy your own version, Amazon sells one here.

The next one on the list is one of my favorites and it definitely falls into the bizarre but beautiful category.  This one is carved out of a Tagua nut and was a gift from my aunt to my mom.  The whole thing is about 2 inches tall and an 1/8 of an inch thick… so I cant imagine how hard it was to carve.  But it also looks a bit like Jesus is about to fall off the bottom of the nut.

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This next one is actually the illustrations from one of my favorite children’s Christmas books called The Friendly Beasts by Tomie DePaola… but it makes the list because it is a mobile in which all of the major characters in the nativity swirl around baby Jesus in a somewhat dizzying manner.  PS… mobiles are extremely hard to photograph, forgive the fuzziness

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This next one is fairly new… and could EASILY be your next craft project if you want a matchbox nativity for your very own.  My Dad’s former administrative assistant passed away a little while ago, but before that always delighted in finding interesting and unique nativities for my mother and this was one of her finds:

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Its hard to see in that picture, but the tips of the matches are painted gold… a very fancy detail on a less than fancy nativity.  I love every bit of it.

This is another one of those that skirts that line between interestingly unique and totally bizarre.  This one hails from Panama that my mom picked up on a vacation there.  I’m pretty sure it is that they don’t have pupils… but something about this makes me feel like Mary looks quite possessed.

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This one is remarkably similar to the one I showed you yesterday (link at top of post) but it makes it onto the list because 1. they look a little bit like cigarettes and 2. This is on a greeting card.

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My next one is actually beautiful, but it is also a fireplace screen.  Proving that they really do have nativities in all forms and fashions. (If you hadn’t already guessed that from today and yesterday’s posts)

 

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I’m not totally sure where this one came from, but it makes me think more of voodoo dolls than the holy family… but to each their own!

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This is one of my favorite bizarre nativities… yes that is bird baby Jesus hatching out of his egg, but have no fear because all of the birds are wearing hats. AAAAAND the shepherd bird has a sheep. I guess in a world where Jesus is a baby bird the laws of proportions have no jurisdiction.

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This next one is a relatively new addition, I think it came from Uncommon Goods a season or two ago.  We have had long debates about who the members of the nativity are… is the Sheep/Shepherd Joseph? If so where is Mary? Or was baby Jesus left alone with only the shepherds to watch over him by night?

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Yesterday I promised that there would be Moose and I would hate to disappoint you. So in all their forestland wonder… the Moose Nativity:

 

 

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And that’s all of them in a nutshell.

 

Oh wait, no this is all of them in a nutshell:

 

 

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What about you, what’s the weirdest or most unique nativity you have ever seen?

Collecting Nativities

I told you guys when I showed you my dining room that seasonal decorating in my family is an Olympic sport.  To be honest, all the other seasons are really like the Olympic Trials… CHRISTMAS is the real deal.  I could easily walk into any of my aunt’s homes and photograph magazine worthy Christmas Decor.   Maybe next year I’ll see about that as a blog post, but this year you are in luck because I’m at my parents for a few days and got the chance to photograph some of her extensive collection of nativity scenes.

And when I say extensive I mean over 400 nativity scenes from countries all over the world. Some are life size, some are tiny, some beautiful, some absurd, some have meaning, and some just struck someone’s fancy. But they are all on display. Every year. It takes her and my dad a full two days to decorate and another two to un-decorate.

There are literally nativities EVERYWHERE in the house: in every room, on every surface, several that hang in the Christmas trees.  You could spend hours looking at all the nativities, and even though I grew up with most of them, every year I see one that is new or I just haven’t looked closely at before.

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My parents host three major holiday parties each year, and this year’s theme was A Swedish Christmas, which I’ll share more details about on Friday.  (Because I really can’t do my mom’s Christmas decorations justice without four full days… you’re welcome).

I thought today I would share some of my favorite nativities and some of the more beautiful ones.  Tomorrow I’ll show you some of the more bizarre unique nativities. Thursday I’ll show you her two Christmas trees and then Friday will be the Swedish Christmas Decor… so stay tuned!!

Mom and Dad moved into this house a little over 9 years ago and when she was decorating for Christmas found these fabulous A frame shelves to display some of her nativities on.

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As you can see, each shelf has several nativities on display.

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I like this one, and if you were a good woodworker it probably wouldn’t be too tricky to make:

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In front of their house they have a life size nativity which my mom’s friend painted and mom clothed for display in front of their house (they are painted plywood with stands)

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This guy is made out of cornhusks:

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This one is painted and is just wide enough to sit on the ledge above the fireplace:

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One of my favorites, this one hails from Mexico.  It was one of my grandfather’s last gifts to my mother before he passed away unexpectedly before I was born:

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I love this one for all it’s vibrant colors:

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This is a newer addition that was handcrafted in Africa:

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My mom actually loves African things, so there are no shortage of African nativities, like this one:

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Or this one, which she carried home in a suitcase from Rwanda (Joseph and Mary are each almost 2 feet tall to give you a bit of perspective):

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I also really love this one, mostly because the manger really feels rustic and realistic to me:

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This one is beautiful and intricate, the actual piece is about 4″ x 4″ to give you an idea of the intricacy in its art.  It was made by a member of one of my dad’s churches and it is intricately cut paper in many many layers.  Talk about a labor of love…

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The last one I’ll show you is a Native American nativity that mom has nestled among feathers and is a beautiful:

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And y’all, this is just the tip of the iceberg.  And stay tuned tomorrow because there will be rubber ducky’s and moose involved.  Yes. Moose.