Nativity sets

We really keep the Christmas decorating to a minimum. We just don't have room to store too much so we have our tree decorations and a few nativity sets as our only decorations. Here is a Nativity set that I made last year. I manly just had to assemble them. We made them at a Super Saturday activity. I love this set. It should be one that the kids could play with. It is only wood and cloth but the kids already picked some of the little gems and such off the characters so I ended up putting it up a bit higher so they couldn't touch it.

This nativity was given to me last year. My mom knew I admired this set and so she got it for me for Christmas last year. This set is of course on top of the bookcase. Sad to have it up so high. I don't get to see it much but maybe when the kids get bigger we can have it down a little lower.

This last nativity is one that the kids love! They are always asking me to light the candles so they can see it turn.
It is very small compared to some of the large German pyramid nativities we saw at the Creche exhibit last week. My kids were thrilled when they saw them there. This is by far their favorite of all our nativities.
Of course the one under the tree is still there. The kids play with it all the time but somehow all the pieces end up back in the stable at the end of the day. Sophie has also started making nativities out of her stuffed animals. She gathers all her sheep and horses and such and arranges them. She then finds some kind of animal family to be Mary, Jospeh and the baby Jesus. She even gets a few to be shepherds and wise men. I need to grab my camera next time she does this.
The kids have also gotten out all the nativity costumes too. I made these for our Back to Bethlehem Christmas party last year and the kids loved it when I pulled them out of the Christmas box. Henry refuses to put his costume on. I don't know why but he prefers his halloween costumes. So he runs and gets his Kangaroo costume. So we usually have a Kangaroo the visits the baby Jesus along with the others.

I just loved this picture of Henry looking at the candles and the nativity spin around.