Nativity Display

Dylan and I went to our city's annual Nativity Display, which is one of my favorite things to do. It's actually put together by the LDS community, but it's well-attended by people of all faiths. We were going to make it a family affair, but Ben was deathly ill and Sadie was taking a nap, so Dylan and I went on a little date. First we went to the World Room, which has displays of nativities from all around the world - Madagascar, Africa, Israel, etc. So neat. I asked Dylan which one was his favorite from this room, and he said he liked the huge wooden nativity that was set up for display on the stage. So we got a picture in front of it. You can't really see it, but oh well:

I don't remember which room the following nativity was in, but Dylan said it was his favorite, because of the sheep. I'm not sure why his face is so solemn in all of these pictures. I promise that he had a good time!

The ladies that work at this event are so cute. They try to make it fun for the kids by having them "find" something in the room. It's quite a challenge, because every room is stuffed to the gills with nativities. In this room, we were supposed to find an elephant. It took awhile, but we eventually found it. Dylan is pointing to it, kind of:

My sister, Natalie, and I actually donated a few of our nativity-like things for this event (they give you your stuff back at the end of the display week), and I got a big kick out of finding our stuff. This one is mine - it was displayed in the Wise Men room:

This one is Natalie's, also displayed in the Wise Man Room:

This is Nat's, displayed in the Hands of the Craftsman room:

The small white one to the right in the following picture is mine, displayed in the Of Royal Birth room. I didn't zoom in, though, because I really liked the nativity just to the left of it. I thought it was really neat:

And lastly, this one is mine. I don't know if you can see, but there is a broken tree that is behind the black shepherd and the wise man with the white beard. It's supposed to be a palm tree. There is a really funny story behind that broken tree. (By the way, I glued it together, but it must have fallen apart during the display process.) My parents got this nativity for me and also one for Natalie, like maybe three years ago or so. We were all together at that Christmas. On the box, it says, "unbreakable!" So I was opening this gift on Christmas, and I said, "Look! It's unbreakable! That is great, since Dylan is always getting into stuff." And my sister, Brianna, always the scientist, goes, "Really??" And she immediately threw the palm tree against my parents' brick fireplace, to see if the nativity was truly unbreakable. The palm tree, of course, broke. And we all just looked at her, incredulously. It didn't occur to her that the claim on the box might be totally false. She felt really bad - in her quick way of thinking, she went from hearing it was unbreakable to testing it out in like .5 seconds. I was so shocked, but we laugh about it now. I give her so much crap about it, and she always goes, "Shut up..."

Here are a few other nativities that I just thought were really cool:



This next one is made of all painted rocks that were glued together! Soooo cute:

This nativity was carved into the end of a match stick. You can't really see it. But I think that's amazing:

This one is made of chocolate! No joke!

There were three Christmas trees decorated with exclusively nativity ornaments. Just as we were leaving, Dylan pointed this ornament out to me. I've seen it before, but I thought it was neat that Dylan found it. He thought it was so cool. He goes, "Santa visited baby Jesus?" I said, "Well, not really, but this ornament shows that Jesus is the most important person at Christmas, not Santa."


I loved going to the Nativity Display. I've missed going, since I've been living in California for two years. It really brings out the true meaning of Christmas for me. It's such a beautiful and spiritual experience. After going to the display, Dylan and I went and got milkshakes to end our "date." It's good to have one-on-one time with each of my kids.