On the Fifth Day of Christmas: Five Manger Scenes

My mother's father, Pop to me, was a preacher--well, preaching was his final, but not sole, career. He  was a teacher, actor and artist before he entered the ministry and to some extent used all those skills in his pastoral vocation. How he managed that is another story.

Sometime during his tenure at the church he founded, he was criticized by members of his congregation for having a Christmas tree in his home. I can't say for sure why certain people in his church understood a Christmas tree to be inappropriate, and if that rule went for everyone in the church or only for him, the pastor. I can only guess and really would rather not. Whatever the reason may have been, Pop decided that he and his family would no longer have a Christmas tree. Whether or not his wife and six children cried or begged or complained about the complainers, I don't know. The wonderful thing he did was to create a huge nativity set where the tree formerly stood. Unfortunately I have no memory of that set but know from my mother that it was special --a consolation for the missing tree.

Four Christmases ago our adult, children's and disabilities choirs collaborated to present a Christmas musical. Since the one we chose had great music but not much of a story, I wrote a script based, in part, on the special manger scene Pop created. The basic plot featured a young girl whose grandmother had just passed away leaving the girl's mother her nativity set, the centerpiece of the story. I don't know what happened to my grandfather's set, and as I wrote the story I wondered where we would find one large and special enough to fit the story and to be seen and appreciated by the cast and congregation. As the team of directors began to meet, the question was raised again and again about the nativity--where was it and when were we going to have it for rehearsals.

During that season of preparation, a women who attends our church come into my office one day and mentioned that she had a manger she wanted to donate and asked if I knew anyone who might want one. "It's pretty big," she said. "Way too big for my house."

Of course the set was beyond perfect (if there is such a thing). The image above reflects a portion of that beautiful creche.