Away From the Manger

I’ve never been very big on Christmas. We didn’t put up a lot of decorations and the tree didn’t go up until the Saturday before Christmas Eve. We didn’t go to church so the only real lead up to the big day were activities at school such as making ornaments and practicing with the choir for the annual concert. We also sang Christmas hymns and carols at school, something I’m quite certain that’s not done anymore. Christmas Day was quiet as only my uncle and aunt would come for dinner as the rest of the family lived overseas. We’d have turkey and I’d call my friends to compare gifts and that was it until the following year.

When I was 11 years old my best friend would take me to church with her. I didn’t have a lot of questions about Christmas because in those days there were seasonal TV shows like The Little Drummer Boy and A Charlie Brown Christmas that told the story of Jesus’ birth. Christmas was less of a mystery than Easter was.

When I was 18, I was living far away from home and it was my first Christmas away from my family. I was lonely and at loose ends but I befriended a woman who let me help out in her pottery studio. She had a ton of molds and we poured a lot of clay to make greenware. People would buy pieces to decorate and the owner would fire them in the kiln.

I had always been fascinated with nativity scenes and there was a 15-piece set of molds at the shop that caught my eye. I decided I would like my own set so I poured all the pieces and glazed them myself. I had been working on them throughout December and they were finally ready to take home on Christmas Eve! I’ve put that same set out for 39 Christmases now and not one piece has broken.

A few years later I was in the local mall when I noticed a nativity scene in a shop window. It was ceramic, exactly the same as mine, but all glazed in white. It was then that I realized I was missing St. Joseph! I had mistaken one of the shepherds for him. I was crestfallen. There was no way I could ever manufacture a new Joseph! The potter had long since moved away and this was in the days before the tentacles of social media reached around the earth. Mr. Shepherd was going to have to continue to do double duty and protect his sheep as well as Mary and the Christ Child.

Then a few days ago I was noodling around on the internet searching for images of gingerbread nativity scenes and “what to my wondering eyes should appear” but a candy mold that matched my ceramic creche figures! I ordered it immediately so that finally, I will be able to have a proper St. Joseph to watch over the manger. Mind you, he’ll have to be made of chocolate but since the set is brown, I don’t think this will be too noticeable. He will have to be recreated every year as I doubt the chocolate will stand the test of time but maybe there’s some sort of spiritual lesson there. Yes, the figure will be perishable and won’t quite match the Mother and Child, but he will still belong with them. Yes, very much like ourselves.