Monday, November 27, 2006
Getting together: Thanksgiving Tradition
For over 20 years, my family has been collecting these Italian nativity figurines, and staging loose interpretations of the Christmas manger scene. Our priority is the spirit of the thing, and beauty over geographic accuracy. Over the years, the scene has grown to take over an entire room of the house (I can’t even get a picture of the whole thing). So, I included some details below along with some process shots (for the artists).
My sisters typically decorate the tree with angles and ribbons, my father takes care of all the lighting (very elaborate red/blue stage lights), and I take care of the landscape and arrangement of the figures. My mother remains general editor and cheerleader.
I used burlap for rolling hills, moss from home depot, and various purchased plant and architectural elements. Some of these things are natural (rocks from the backyard, and pieces of wood).
Above shows our “evergreen” interpretation of the landscape.
Here are a few angles: the left picture is to show depth, and the right picture to show detail. We challenge ourselves every year to make it bigger and better. My Dad has a plan for a swarm of of 20 angles whirling above it all - we’ll see about that.
posted by cjagers at 05:23pm
7 Comments Add your own
1. Ryan | November 27th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
That’s outrageous! Looks like a great time though. You could charge admission for something like that. Is there a fog or snow machine involved?
2. chris | November 27th, 2006 at 7:42 pm
Please, don’t give my dad any more ideas. I think the scene has finally reached critical mass.
3. Grant | November 28th, 2006 at 3:30 pm
That is bloody insane. Looks like alot of fun though. Ryan is right, your dad should be giving tours with a $5 admission charge. I can’t stand the holidays, and generally that includes most things involved in the holidays, but this is a great project. You need to mask off that skylight to get some natural, heavenly spot lights and then add the aforementioned fog and snow and this thing will be ready for a tour!
4. Deborah Fisher | December 1st, 2006 at 3:59 pm
That is amazing… but I do think that fog would really make it POP!
5. Christopher Jagers »&hellip | November 27th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
[…] Our family has a tradition every Thanksgiving break. Not only do we put up elaborate Christmas decorations, but my parents get all of their technology overhauled by myself and my sisters. Keeping them current is out constant duty. I am now happy to announce that everyone in the family has the latest Mac computer with the new OS Leopard installed. (My father just converted over from 15 years of pain with a PC). […]
6. Pat | August 27th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I’m looking for ideas for the nativity for our Christmas cantata and came across yours! What a neat idea. I love your family participation! Keep up the good work, you are making God smile!
7. Betsch Ailene | November 27th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Hello people, it’s Thanksgiving Day! I’m happy with my extra day off, and I am planning to make something fun that’ll probably involve a bike ride and seeing something new in Bridgeview I haven’t seen yet.
You write something new at Thanksgiving?
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