A Surprise Antique Plaster Creche

An aging mind is a semi-sweet thing.  It can be very aggravating when you forget where you put your keys.  But sweet when you can't remember what happened on Longmire last season, so when you watch it again it seems fresh.  Same goes for the loot hidden in the attic.

But first, I have a confession.  I think it has been five years (or more) since I decorated for Christmas at home.  Sure, I may lean one of my stenciled sleds on the front porch.  And I always put out this 12" baby Jesus, which I purchased an auction many years ago.  Then I call it good.  But honest to goodness decorating, (like putting up a tree)?  No.

I sell at a vintage market, so all year long I am buying Christmas items to resell, or to re-purpose in order to resell.  It is my business, and I take it seriously.  I am in it to make a profit, which means I am dragging out all my Christmas loot in October to package and price it.  And all of the Christmas items that I "enhance" (stenciled windows, stenciled sleds, bottle brush trees, dioramas) have to be finished, priced and in the booth by the first week of November.

When all of that is completed, and I have staged and stocked my booth for Christmas -- stick a fork in me, because I am DONE. Exhausted, burnt out with decorating. and a bit tired of the lights and glitter before the season ever gets into full swing.

Don't get me wrong.  The REAL message of Christmas -- Christ coming to earth -- I never get tired of that.  That is the foundation on which my whole life is built.  And come to think of it -- there wasn't a lot of glitz or glamour in that Bethlehem stable.

But this year is a little different.  It will be our last Christmas in this beautiful Victorian house that we have lived in for almost 30 years.  So, our adult children will be home this Christmas for one last time to celebrate in this house.  Yes, that would be reason enough to decorate.  But sooner or later we have to sift through all of those attic Christmas boxes anyway, in order to figure out if it all gets transported to the new house or not.

So last week we took the plunge.  All of the Christmas boxes came down from the attic.  And there were plenty of them....totes for a "kid" tree, totes with fragile antique ornaments for a "Victorian" tree, totes with Christmas scrapbooks, lights, totes with Christmas crafts, four small trees and one large tree.  And more.  So much more.  But this way we have a chance to sort: keep, sell, pawn off to others, donate or kick to the curb.

And then the surprise.  When my husband brought down one large tote, he asked what it had in it.  Super heavy.  I took a peak inside and didn't recognize the bottom of a large plaster  donkey.  But hey, it looked cool.  We put it aside and kept working.

The next day I unwrapped the whole nativity.  WOWSA.  It aroused a whisper of a memory... shopping a sale at a "nunnery" in our little town, and picking up this large plaster set.  I bet it was 7-10 years ago.

Obviously I meant to keep it, since it was in the attic -- but this is the first year it will be displayed.  It was worth the extra effort of going through all of the Christmas boxes just to rediscover this lovely old creche.