There is a comedian my brothers and I like to quote named Mitch Hedberg, and he has this joke where he says: people always ask me how to get a hold of me and I respond, I can’t tell you where I’m staying, but there are two trees involved.

This blog post reminded me of that joke… anyway, moving on.  I’ve shown you some of my favorite of mom’s nativities… and some of the weirder ones, but she doesn’t end her Christmas decorating with the nativities.  At my mom’s house there have always been two Christmas trees: one fancy one and one ‘family friendly one’.  But both are real trees.

To this day she still has both trees and I love each one in their own way.

The fancy one is always done in white lights and all crystal and gold decorations.  Mom taught me as a young child that this tree was for looking only.  In fact she used to say (and I would repeat and being the bossy person I am, instruct others to do so as well), “Pretty pretty, no touch”.  My mom would always call it out in that tone that only mother’s can achieve: sing songy, yet carries an underlying threat.  Yep, you know the one.

Anyway, back to my mom’s beautiful tree:

In her current house this one sits upstairs and has mostly crystal and glass ornaments.  For this one she usually finds trees that are more unique , like the one for this year, a little sparse, but it has more character.

The star is a recent addition from Halls in Kansas City… isn’t it gorgeous?!

The other tree in the house has tons of special memories for me.  It always has colored lights and is fun and playful.  This was the tree we decorated as a family.

And it is full of a lifetime of memories and all of the ornaments that come from countless Mother’s Day out programs.  See how cute I was?

And I’m totally sure my mom meant for me to have my white cardigan buttoned all the way up to the top for school pictures. 🙂

I love the idea of two trees so that (one day when I have kids) I can have my well decorated tree, but still give my kids the freedom to decorate with plastic baggie angels that I’ll keep until they are almost in their 30s and yes that’s what is in the background of the photo above.

Christmas is just around the corner… are you ready?

I should mention that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree… neither my mother nor I have a single wrapped present under our tree.  Nothing like a last minute wrapping spree!!

I told you guys when I showed you my dining room that seasonal decorating in my family is an Olympic sport.  To be honest, all the other seasons are really like the Olympic Trials… CHRISTMAS is the real deal.  I could easily walk into any of my aunt’s homes and photograph magazine worthy Christmas Decor.   Maybe next year I’ll see about that as a blog post, but this year you are in luck because I’m at my parents for a few days and got the chance to photograph some of her extensive collection of nativity scenes.

And when I say extensive I mean over 400 nativity scenes from countries all over the world. Some are life size, some are tiny, some beautiful, some absurd, some have meaning, and some just struck someone’s fancy. But they are all on display. Every year. It takes her and my dad a full two days to decorate and another two to un-decorate.

There are literally nativities EVERYWHERE in the house: in every room, on every surface, several that hang in the Christmas trees.  You could spend hours looking at all the nativities, and even though I grew up with most of them, every year I see one that is new or I just haven’t looked closely at before.

My parents host three major holiday parties each year, and this year’s theme was A Swedish Christmas, which I’ll share more details about on Friday.  (Because I really can’t do my mom’s Christmas decorations justice without four full days… you’re welcome).

I thought today I would share some of my favorite nativities and some of the more beautiful ones.  Tomorrow I’ll show you some of the more bizarre unique nativities. Thursday I’ll show you her two Christmas trees and then Friday will be the Swedish Christmas Decor… so stay tuned!!

Mom and Dad moved into this house a little over 9 years ago and when she was decorating for Christmas found these fabulous A frame shelves to display some of her nativities on.

As you can see, each shelf has several nativities on display.

I like this one, and if you were a good woodworker it probably wouldn’t be too tricky to make:

In front of their house they have a life size nativity which my mom’s friend painted and mom clothed for display in front of their house (they are painted plywood with stands)

This guy is made out of cornhusks:

This one is painted and is just wide enough to sit on the ledge above the fireplace:

One of my favorites, this one hails from Mexico.  It was one of my grandfather’s last gifts to my mother before he passed away unexpectedly before I was born:

I love this one for all it’s vibrant colors:

This is a newer addition that was handcrafted in Africa:

My mom actually loves African things, so there are no shortage of African nativities, like this one:

Or this one, which she carried home in a suitcase from Rwanda (Joseph and Mary are each almost 2 feet tall to give you a bit of perspective):

I also really love this one, mostly because the manger really feels rustic and realistic to me:

This one is beautiful and intricate, the actual piece is about 4″ x 4″ to give you an idea of the intricacy in its art.  It was made by a member of one of my dad’s churches and it is intricately cut paper in many many layers.  Talk about a labor of love…

The last one I’ll show you is a Native American nativity that mom has nestled among feathers and is a beautiful:

And y’all, this is just the tip of the iceberg.  And stay tuned tomorrow because there will be rubber ducky’s and moose involved.  Yes. Moose.