My Mother's Nativity Set

The best nativity set in the entire world (for me) is the one my mother bought in the 1950s.

She was still single at the time (she married my father on September 3, 1960) and working at Continental Insurance.

She always placed this nativity set underneath the artificial tree in the finished basement of our home: 2108 Belmont Avenue in Joliet. A smaller, sleeker, three-piece scene sat below the real tree in the living.

My sister and I would come home from school and listen to our parents' Christmas records, which were stacked on the turntable of the console, which included two upright speakers.

We would lean our ears against the speakers for better sound quality, our way of enjoying headphones before we actually owned any.

Sometimes we played with the figures, too, the reason why they are chipped.

My mother said that Joseph was actually a shepherd because the set she bought was missing the Joseph figure.

I don't know if she bought the Christmas tree in the back at the same time or she added it later. 

I do remember the paper folded angels (with tabs and instructions for folding) were always part of the scene.

At some point, she added the Styrofoam snowman and stapled glitter star either my sister or I made, mostly likely when we attended the former St. Bernard Catholic School in Joliet.

When my sister gave me the set earlier this month, it was still packed in the nearly seventy-year-old gift box with what has to be the original bag of straw, judging from the disintegration of the bag.

The old can of snow was gone. But the snow you see sprayed on the cardboard stable is the snow from my childhood.

This nativity scene, as well as this beautiful piece of the first Christmas by Perry Como, are forever linked in my mind. 

You can listen to it now as you scroll through the photos.

Christ is Born! Let is Glorify Him!