December 5, 2009

Create a New Family Tradition -- with a Handmade Christmas Keepsake Creche!

In all the rush and fuss of the Holiday Season (so much to do, so little time), it's easy for the true meaning of Christmas to get lost in the hurry/flurry.

Year after year, we find ourselves caught up in the frenzy.  Year after year, we try to stop the whirlwind.

And more and more all the while, we find ourselves longing for a gentle, old fashioned celebration -- without the noise, the bargain-hunting crowds, the big box stores, the big ticket items.  I want to make and bake, not shake and quake.

I want to enjoy the Holiday Spirit again!  And that old fashioned kind of "Old Maine Christmas" is what Joe always loves best. 

So this year we changed things!  We made, by hand and with lots of love and care, all our Christmas gifts.

Then we got busy with handmade decorations and ornaments -- some just for us, some for my Holiday Shop, RoughMagicHolidays.etsy.com, and some for the simple joy of making them!

I think of all the gifts, decorations and ornaments we've created this year, my very favorite is Joe's rustic wooden Shadow Box Creche.  I love its soft colors, its unfettered reverence, and the sweet innocence of the little Holy Family, Angels and Lambs.



 
Joe designed and built the hinged shadow box, fitting the spruce sides into his solid oak frame. He then cut out the figures, which I painted in a primitive country style and attached to the box (17 inside and one angel outside).

The childlike Holy Family and Angels have halos cut from sheet copper. The stable is suggested by a little mossy "bough" that Nature placed outside our door -- just for this purpose, we believe.

Just looking at it restores my Christmas Spirit and makes me smile.

To view the Creche in my shop, please click here.

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