Journey to Bethlehem

Several years ago, moms were swapping Advent ideas on a homeschool discussion group on which I was lurking. One of their suggestions appealed to me, so I adapted it for our family.

The idea is to create a simple scene alluding to the Judean countryside through which Mary and Joseph figurines can travel during the days of Advent. Jesus stays hidden away until he quietly appears in the manger on Christmas morning.

The trickiest part for us was finding an affordable, unbreakable nativity set in which Jesus was not attached to Mary. Most of them had Jesus and the manger molded together with an adoring, hovering Mary. The first year we found a nice resin set that we thought was attractive and fairly unbreakable, but Jesus was attached to Mary--which 2000+ years ago was a very good thing, but for our purposes needed a little creative masking. We rigged up a rubber-banded cloth to cover up Jesus and the manger. Mary looked very pregnant. We're good at making-do.

Another year I found a nativity set of similar size that included Jesus separate (but still attached to the manger--ideally I wanted an empty manger to be set up and waiting). This year The Boy was given a little manger and a separate Jesus of similar size for a preschool project, so this whole tradition is getting more practical and pathetically mismatched as the years progress.

We've had various mishaps, adding to the humble set-up. One year we traveled to California for Christmas. We wanted to finish our countdown there, so we packed up the pieces and stuffed them in the suitcases. When we pulled them out, the stable was cracked in two, Joseph's and the shepherds' staffs were snapped off, and some decorative ropes were broken from the camels. I was disappointed, but we set it up just the same. The kids were delighted in spite of the imperfection and brokenness.

We superglued things together for the following years and patchworked this concept together as best we could. We collected small stones of similar sizes to use for the winding path--some of them polished stones and others rough-looking pebbles reminiscent of a rocky landscape possibly found near early Bethlehem.

We place a tablecloth over the table and stick an overturned plastic storage container underneath to create a "hill." The animals can meander up and over the Tupperware, the shepherds can tend their flocks hither and yon. I thought the angel should stay relatively near Mary and Joseph, but the scene is small, so it can fulfill its duties from just about anywhere.

The wisemen just sort of hang out. I used to place them in another part of the room so they could slowly work their way closer in order to arrive on Epiphany, beginning to inch into the scene sometime during the first week of January, but the kids wanted them in the scene this year.

Every day, the kids argue about who gets to move Mary and who gets to move Joseph. Someone else jostles the shepherds around to a new locale. And the humble, makeshift countdown continues until Christmas Day.

Something about the simplicity seems appropriate for how humble and makeshift the first Christmas must have been.

At least, I tell myself this. Otherwise, I could get pretty discouraged when I see layouts like THIS (be sure to visit the website her sister-in-law set up to highlight some of the nooks and crannies of this spectacular scene).

After you visit that, be sure to compare with our pathetic, makeshift, superglued version. The contrast will amuse you.