Exotic Nativities From Around The World

It all started several years ago when we helped a friend of our daughters go to Argentina to live in an orphanage for three months and help the children and particularly girls in small remote towns. It was an amazing experience for her and as a thank you gift to us she brought back a nativity set hand carved from exotic hardwood from a local village where she stayed. This started my collection of nativities from around the world.

I love Christmas, but I really hate the clutter and mess, so with that first international nativity I changed my decorating methods and just started putting out nativities. I had a fair number of them that I had collected throughout the years and the international theme went perfectly. We decorate the tree and place nativities around the house, no clutter, no mess and a great reminder of why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

A couple of years after our Argentine nativity we had the opportunity to visit Guatemala, I added a nativity to my collection carved out of native hardwood. That summer I was visiting a world fair where dancers from all over the world come to dance and visit the united States, I had the chance to buy a nativity made completely of banana leaves wrapped around wires. I loved it, it is so different than anything I had previously.

The next year we were able to visit Sweden and German where I bought a Swedish nativity carved into crystal and in Germany I had to forgo my love of nativities and buy a beautiful hand carved nutcracker. The wood used in nutcrackers is hard and smooth and beautiful. Next stop Jerusalem, well, we didn't get to go, but our friends did and we purchased a beautiful hand carved piece of Joseph and Mary riding on a donkey carved out of olive tree wood. Someday I am going to go there myself and then I will buy a full nativity out of the olive wood. The grains in the wood are so beautiful.

Well, that is how my collection of exotic wood nativities began and I hope to carry this tradition on for many years. Sometimes nativities are hard to come buy especially if we travel in the summer but I love exotic wood, exotic hardwood in particular and the craftsmanship that goes along with them with the representation of the country.