Waldorf-inspired Nativity Set

Here is my first Nativity set of 2010:


Listed on Alkelda: Dolls for Storytelling

This is only my second year of sewing dolls for the shop, and I am not used to thinking of the winter holiday season this far in advance. I'm posting the first set here to help it be more easily found in internet searches.

Song of the Week: We Three Kings

In the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew does not say how many Magi/Wise Men/Kings visited Jesus Christ after his birth. The gifts presented in Matthew's account are gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The Magi are anonymous in Matthew's account, but they became known as Gaspar (or Caspar), Melchior and Balthazar. Sometimes the Magi are depicted as coming from the Middle-East and riding on dromedary camels. Sometimes artists envision them as coming from the Far East, where they ride bactrian camels.

The felt Nativity set from Kyrgyzstan (pictured below, with additional visitors) has an interesting provenance. The person who originally bought these Nativity sets from local artisans noted that there weren't any Wise Men in the collection. The artisans didn't know about the Wise Men, so the person explained that they were traditionally three visitors from the East who brought gifts for the baby Jesus. The artisans made three Kings with turbans, and placed blankets in their hands as gifts to keep the baby Jesus warm.


Photo taken 2 years ago. The felt angel is my addition.

"We Three Kings" is a Christmas carol written by Reverend John Henry Hopkins, Jr. It appeared in Carols, Hymns, and Song in 1863. The song is in 3/4 time, with five verses, three of which lay out the purpose of the gifts. There is one rousing chorus, which may be familiar to you even if you're a bit vague on the individual verses:

O star of wonder, star of night,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect Light.

Some of you may be familiar with the parody:

We Three Kings of Orient are,
Tried to smoke a rubber cigar,
It was loaded, it exploded--
[Pause]
We two Kings of Orient are...

My favorite rendition of the parody was on A Prairie Home Companion. You can find the complete parody lyrics here and listen to it here (in Segment One, called "Wise"). You'll need Real Audio player.

I've got guitar chords for you! I've usually seen it written in E minor. If you'd like to play it in E minor, you can find the chords here. I've got chords for you in A minor. Yes, there is that pesky F, but the good news is that it sounds just fine in F7 major, and is good for the quick chord changes.


Click on the image in order to enlarge it.

Winter Nature Table and Santa Lucia Day

As promised, here is the view of our winter nature table at the House of Glee. The winter nature table had to be combined with the nativity set, so the Earth Angel, Santa Lucia and King Winter are watching over the Wise Men and their camels as they make their way across the hutch:



The Earth Angel, King Winter and the felted angel hovering above the nativity set are all made by Nushkie and Santa Lucia was made by Haddy2dogs. Etsy has been a den of temptation, I tell you....

December 13 is Santa Lucia's feast day, but today was the day the school celebrated the festival. At my daughter's request, my mom made a Santa Lucia crown from silk ivy leaves complete with candle-holder clips from Germany:



Despite several requests from our own Lucia, Bede and I refuse to light the candles. Call us spoilsports, but we are not interested in winning any Darwin Awards.

Tomorrow, I have my last gig in my fall series with Pierce County Library System at the Eatonville branch, and then Sunday is the Winter Spiral. See you next week!

Eleventh Day of Christmas

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
A new (on sale) Nativity.

The Nativity set I had admired for much of December 2006 was on sale at 40% off. As there were a couple days of Christmas left (ending on Epiphany, January 6th), Lucia and I arranged the set on the hutch with the Magi traveling one shelf above the creche.

If you're wondering why the Magi are traveling with a giraffe and a zebra, it's probably because the folk-art creators, Maurice and Kelly Dallas, mainly craft Noah's Ark sets. Follow the link to see some of their more intricate designs (and no, our on-sale Nativity set was not originally hundreds of dollars as the link might indicate).

Tomorrow, the House of Glee is having a Three Kings' Day party with a few friends. This is the first time since college since I've organized any such venture. Traditionally, the baker puts a bean into the cake batter and whomever gets the coin is the king/queen of Three Kings Day.* In Louisiana, a tiny plastic baby takes the place of the coin and whomever gets the plastic baby has to throw the next party. All these years I never took seriously the possibility of someone breaking teeth or choking on the various objects** I dropped into the batter, but now that I have a child, I'm Ms. Safety Woman. I shall bake a hazelnut into the cake to prevent the former and make sure everyone mashes the cake to bits before eating in order to prevent the latter. We have some Christmas crackers we forgot to bring out on December 25th, so we'll distribute the crackers at the party. As each cracker comes with a paper crown (in addition to the corny joke and the prize), it seems appropriate that we ended up saving the crackers for Three Kings Day.


Adoration of the Girlie


Adoration of the Playmobil dollies

Notes:
*While the Biblical passages do not state how many Magi/Wise Folk/Kings actually traveled to visit Jesus, tradition holds that there were three Magi, and their names were Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar. I honor the tradition.

**For example, a ring symbolized who'd get married next and a coin symbolized who'd come into great wealth.