A dear friend knitted this nativity for me some years ago. She had very little money and couldn't afford to buy gifts so she made them out of scraps of wool. It meant more to me than any expensive gift; there is love in every stitch. One of my little ones added Santa, saying he wanted Jesus to have a teddy! ~ My Angel
Studying art I encountered very early depictions of Christ birth in a nativity scene. Symbolism meets reality. (I wonder if Mary ever asked in exasperation, "What do you think you are doing? Were you born in a barn?" Young Jesus could have answered "yes.") I was fascinated how early art work depicted a spotless manger and everything pristine and tidy. Over the years many artist have recreated this scene as they would imagine it. My first nativity scene was a paper cut-out from when I was about 10 years old. Since then, I am fascinated by the vast variety of Nativity scenes. One of my favorites was when I was a little girl. I was probably 9 or 10 years old. We drove to a family friends farm on the edge of the city and there was the manager and a real donkey and a real sheep and real people all dressed up. The family actually re-enacted the events. I remember the smell of the barnyard and the briskness of the air. I wanted to linger there and soak up the feeling of peace. (One of the side benefits of counseling was I also gained access to good memories and this was one of them.) We then drove around the neighborhoods to 'Ooooo' and 'Ahhhh' over all the light displays. Nothing as elaborate as they have now. However, for me, I would have gladly lingered at the manger scene. I started counting. I now have 5 nativity scenes. One set that I wanted several years ago would have taken up a good portion of my living room and required a huge chunk of storage space. I decided to enjoy it at the store and leave it there. Some of the churches have evenings where people will bring their nativity sets to be put on display. There are so many and so beautiful and so different from each other. Like every person imagines it just a little differently.
Wikipedia has a Art history article that gives you quick run down of the art styles and how each era depicted Christ's birth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativity_of_Jesus_in_art
Or you could just Google art nativity scene and click on images.
https://www.google.com/search?q=art+nativity+scene&hl=en&rlz=1G1ACAW_ENUS440&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=JFHgTpnXA6axiQL_x9X3Dg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CGgQ_AUoAQ&biw=2556&bih=1292
So many beautiful scenes using so many different materials.
One of my favorite artists, Greg Olsen, created a wonderful painting.
http://www.gregolsen.com/angels-of-christmas-3816
Another favorite artist, Jon McNaughton.
http://www.mcnaughtonart.com/page/view_collection/Religious?artpiece=296
Stained glass creates a beautiful image:
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-stained-glass-nativity-image6300597
One of the ideas I came across when the kids were small was to have them each make a little manger at Thanksgiving time. Then every time they did something to help one of the family members, they got to put a piece of straw in their manger. I think it was one of the best Decembers ever since all the kids wanted their manger full of straw for the baby Jesus.
I would love to have people send me pictures or links to there favorite Nativity scenes. Yes, I believe that you do not need to be Christian to enjoy the beautiful workmanship. You can send pictures to weareonebyruth at symbol gmail dot com. (Trying to prevent being attacked by spammers.)
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