Three years ago, I posted a photo on Flickr of the small wooden Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus figures from the nativity scene that my family has had since I was a child. I’d taken the photo to use with an Advent post about a group of children putting together a nativity scene at my parents’ church. I hadn’t given another thought to that photo until last Saturday, when a new comment showed up on my Flickr account.
The comment read: We had this entire nativity set when I was a kid! And I’ve been trying to find if the family or company still makes them. Are there any printed or painted words on the bottoms of the figures? I really hope you can help out. Thanks! Ethan
I was online at the time, uploading photos for my photo-a-day project, so I saw the comment immediately. And I knew I could help out.
The year that I posted that photo, my sister decided to start a nativity set for her family. She wanted to carry on with her boys a tradition from our childhood, of adding a figure to the nativity scene each year. She looked at other nativity sets, but didn’t find any that she liked as well as the one my parents had. So, armed with a few letters stamped on the bottoms of the figures and a half-remembered name, she turned to the internet, where she found the German workshop that had been making those hand-carved nativity figures for 75 years. She’d sent me the URL for a website that sold them.
I looked up the URL, and then replied: Hi Ethan! They’re wonderful, aren’t they? They’re made by Lotte Sievers-Hahn; you can get them here: www.germanchristmasgifts.com
A few minutes later, Ethan responded: OMG – You’re a saint! We lost ours during a move years ago. I can’t believe you helped me find them! Thank you! Thank you so much. Happy Holidays, Kimberly!
I teared up when I read Ethan’s second comment. I imagined how heartbroken I’d be at the loss of those small wooden figures in which so many Christmas memories are bound up. My tears were also those of gratitude, for the gifts that this amazing web of connections we call the internet had given both Ethan and me: to Ethan the gift of recreating a beloved family treasure, and to me the gift of helping him to do so.
And I replied: Glad to help, Ethan. Happy holidays to you, too.
Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus lying in the manger… and little Owl, who, while not traditional, is one of my favorites.
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Aloha,
Nice story about the nativity figures. He who searches, will find.
Stumbeld across your blog while looking for pictures of cats in refrigerators…you seem like a kindred spirit. Will spend some time reading your posts.
Feel free to visit mine (there are two, a yang and a yin, accessible from the yang.)
Have a blessed holiday!
BR