Possibly 50+ years ago, my aunt and uncle brought a nativity set back from Spain as a gift to my parents. I have no exact date, so must guess. My mother put this set out every Christmas……and then it came to me, and I did the same. My youngest daughter has always loved it and I decided it was time for it to go to her.
After many years of being put away unceremoniously in a different box every year, I decided the time was nigh for it have its own box and a specially designated place for the future.
I should have measured it first, but no. I’m thinking Joseph is about 7” tall….to give some idea of size. His poor neck sports old glue technology…unsightly, but done with love by my dad. The poor baby Jesus was really easy to lose…so another good reason for him to have his own manger space. 
I wrapped each piece in some purple fleece material to keep them safe inside.
I designed the box from scratch….and did not use a box generator. I’ve been wanting for a long time to make a box with a sliding lid and I sure learned a lot. I made it first half-sized in cardboard to test my file. Found and fixed a couple errors. Then, I did a full-size in PG draft board, and not wanting to waste that, I added some graphics and personalization to it for my husband to keep his pipes and smoking stuff in….and will give it to him for Christmas. Finally, having achieved design success, this box of PG cherry, with the lid medallion in maple.
The gold wings below the hole were done with embossing powder. The halos on the maple engraving were done with oil based markers.
(lid detail)
The angel on the front is my pride and joy, very painstakingly colored in with the oil based markers.
The inside bottom of the box contains my personal words to my daughter, as well as the history of the set. I have obscured some of the text for personal reasons.
She already knows the history, but everyone knows that generations from now, that information could end up being lost. This way, she won’t have to have a good memory!
There were countless hours of work put into this, sort of hit and miss over quite some time….the designing, the artwork, the hand-finishing, the gluing. Maybe I should have kept track, but it was too random. There are mistakes, but for once I will resist my usual proclivity for pointing them out and just say that I loved making this and I will love giving it to Alison.
