When Ron and I married, he gave me a little manger scene that was made of wood and had a palm tree with fragile leaves. I soon knew that would not work with grubby little boy hands as Matthew and Andrew came along. So began the search for a better, "child friendly" manger set. There were those made from Weebles (you know wobble but don't fall down) and other current toy styles. Somehow they just did not seem accurate to me. I mean who wants your child to grow up thinking the Christ child looked like a Weeble? Although I guess theologically he did wobble like a human, but NOT fall down because He is God.
As a child I had visited J.W. Woolworth’s over the Christmas seasons. I remembered seeing the colorful plastic manger sets that could be bought in various sizes. The size seemed right and the diversity of characters seemed fairly accurate. I returned to Woolworth's as an adult parent and found the one pictured here on sale and knew that it would be great for little boys to set up, play with, and rearrange. Ron and I decided to help the boys set it up the first few times, but later it became their decorating choice to set it up themselves. Sometimes it was hard for two brothers to agree on the arrangement.
One year it was under the tree only to be moved to the side table later. Sometimes Mary ended up in the background (a true mom) and the cow took the side next to the Christ child. Joseph was sometimes confused with a Wiseman or a shepherd. (I don’t know where the Shepherds and the sheep are in this photo, maybe in the fields? And I guess the plastic Angel went to fetch them and left this glittery one as a replacement.) Over the years, I believe baby Jesus took a ride or two in the back of a Matchbox dump truck. I tried gluing him in the manger, but boy hands can “unglue” anything.
