During this Christmas season of 2025, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of our family nativity set!
The story begins with a family project.
In 1975, my mom, brother and I painted this nativity set. Each piece started as plain, white ceramic. We then painted, stained and varnished each piece. Painting white ceramic was quite a popular trend in the 1970s!
Under the manger piece holding the baby Jesus, my mom scrapped out the year 1975 so we would all know when the set was done. I am so glad she did that so we could all remember the year.
Ports O’ Call has a ceramics shop
My mom remembers buying the set at a small shop in Ports O’ Call Village in San Pedro, California during a prior year.
Ports O’Call was a seaside-themed outdoor shopping village in San Pedro. It was right on the water along the San Pedro channel, and had an “old port” theme/look to it. It included several restaurants and cute shops we all remember as kids. (Ports O'Call has since been taken down and transformed into a modern shopping and entertainment area.)
A ceramics shop that we visited frequently was in the village. My mom got the entire set of white pieces on sale after the holidays for something like $5 or $10 since the store was trying to clear them out. The day was super memorable for her because it was apparently pouring rain. She ran into the store, which was upstairs, while my brother Mike and I waited in the car.
So when my mom said she had to navigate to the store and go “upstairs” to get the ceramic pieces in the pouring rain, it was actually a bit of a challenging feat.
We then spent the next year or so painting the white ceramic pieces.
The display of the completed painted nativity set of the holy family has since been a part of our family Christmas traditions.
The decision for making a painting of our family nativity set
I make the decision of what image to paint for our holiday card at all different times during the year.
Sometimes I don’t settle on an image until closer to the fall. However, the decision for this painting came while we were in Los Angeles for the holidays in 2024. My mom had mentioned the idea about the 50th year anniversary and it just seemed like a natural.
That same year in 2024, we also attended a lovely nativity exhibit held every year at the Mary and Joseph Retreat Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. During this yearly event, people lend their nativity scenes for display during the Christmas season.
The sets displayed are different every year, and it is really fun to see interpretations done across the world.
Confirmation comes from the Antiques Roadshow
When doing a painting, many times I “start writing" just some notes about the story so I don’t forget the details as time goes by.
So not long after coming home from our visit with my folks in December of 2024, I wrote the initial page for this story on Jan 27, 2025 – just making notes about the trip to see the nativity sets at the retreat house, and how we were marking the 50th anniversary of our set, etc.
Well that exact night, I was watching a rerun of an Antiques Roadshow episode that featured this painting titled "The Three Kings" by Angel Botello in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This painting represents the three kings present with the virgin Mary and the Christ child.
Seeing this painting sealed the deal for me! I love getting confirmations from the universe, so I figured happening upon this episode was a bit of encouragement to go with the nativity scene project as well.
Below is a screen shot I grabbed the next morning, just to prove to myself I actually saw the piece that prior night… the time marker is at the top of the image.
And as I write this now in December 2025, these details are so important to capture “when they happen” so I can keep track of these lovely coincidences! Otherwise, I totally would have forgotten that I saw this episode on the same day I started writing this story.
The Painting’s Layout
When planning a painting, the most important thing is arranging the elements within the scene.
Well for this painting, my mom had taken care of that! She had arranged the pieces so well for their annual display. I loved it! So “that was easy” as they say. I transferred the layout for the painting using a photograph I took of her arrangement.
The only thing I had to think about was the background...
I added Orbs
In addition to the night sky, I added some friends. You will notice the round elements in the sky…
This is my nod to the unseen, benevolent helpers in our lives. Some folks call them orbs, angels, ancestors who have passed or helpful spirits – whatever the name, I believe they are all always with us and especially there to help us celebrate times of great Joy.
And sometimes they show up in our photos…
The orb above showed up quite a few years ago when we were all having a huge laugh during one of our family Christmas Eve celebrations. That is my Uncle on “Santa’s” (aka "my husband Bruce’s") lap.
For the benefit of the little ones in our extended family, someone always dressed up as Santa at these Christmas Eve gatherings . This time my Uncle wanted to get in on the fun – not sure Santa was prepared.
And I believe the orbs showed up as well to engage in all the fun!
I have many more “Orb pictures” that have appeared during this event and others when using my old digital camera. Not the cameras on my iPhones, but a separate camera from years past.
And all the times they have “shown up”, it has been during a time of great joy!
So I know there were a host of unseen spirits during this time of great joy when Christ was born. As Linus so eloquently reminds us during the beautiful scene during “A Charlie Brown Christmas” when he tells us what Christmas is all about and how the angels bring tidings of great joy… Linus's Christmas Speech from "A Charlie Brown Christmas".
Which Rune did I get?
And as another piece to this story, ever since my trip to Iceland in 2024, I draw out a Rune from a bag of symbols to see what spirit thinks about each painting I now do.
Runes are an ancient, symbolic language brought to Iceland from the Nordic people who first settled there. Runes are a method of communication for concepts both simple and multi-layered. There are 24 basic runes, and each conveys meaning often more than a word or single letter can simply express.
I mentally ask for a Rune to represent a particular painting, and then blindly stick my hand into the full, felt bag of 24 Rune symbols and pull one out.
When doing this for my nativity painting, I pulled the symbol of Laguz.
Below is the description from the book that accompanies my bag of Runes.
I believe that first line says it all… “This rune represents the flow of water or a source of healing power and renewal, life energy and growth.”
Christ is known as the source of “living water”; he was certainly a source of healing power, having done many healings during his lifetime; and safe to say renewal, life energy and growth – especially spiritual growth, can be experienced by us all via his coming to share time with us and his teachings here on planet earth over 2000 years ago.
Not sure a better symbol could have come out for this painting.
Lessons learned so far
Love to summarize some of the things I hope to remember from this experience.
- When a fun idea comes along (such as doing the nativity set painting), go with it instead of putting it off (which I often do...)
- Keep notes along the way - I am happy I started writing the story in early January even though the painting wasn't going to be done until later in the year. It makes it so much easier as I get closer to "final writing time".
- Be sure and write down details to remember the depth of the synchronicities. I never would have remembered that I saw the painting of the 3 kings the same day that I started writing this painting's story without the proof of the screen shots from the episode.
Well, that is how this story sits now in December 2025. As I have learned in the past, sometimes things happen later on which are fun to share in relation to a specific painting, so I leave that possibility open.
I hope you enjoy the painting and this story. I had great joy in sharing it all with you.
Products with this image will be available soon.
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