Nativity Scene In The Bread

In Italy people like to decorate their homes for Christmas just like here in the USA, even though a nativity scene is probably the most important piece displayed.
Not everybody decorates trees, as it is commonly known to be a pagan custom [we are talking about a Catholic country here 🙂 ].

I have seen very creative ways to display the nativity scene. A friend of my family used his large toy train table [almost as big as the room holding it, complete with real-water lake and river, and papier-mache mountains); after covering the train tracks with faux bushes, he re-created the Bethlehem scene, with stable, shepherds, sheep and all. I used to love his nativity set; he even had a water mill with a moving wheel!

In my parents’ house, we used to create the scene in our almost never used fireplace, where large pieces of driftwood “acted” as mountains, and, with faux moss, or pebbles as background, we arranged the characters/pieces of the whole baby Jesus’ birth day scenario….

Over the past years, my mother has sent me different small nativity scenes around Christmas time: they are usually very small or miniatures, for shipping reasons. Few years ago she mailed me a very original one that a crafter arranged in an open rosetta [=a characteristic Italian bread or pane that I often wish to have here in America].

These are two rosette:

and this is the nativity scene in a half rosetta:

the green stuff is moss and the gray swirls at the top are glitter squiggles.

Amazingly, it hasn’t deteriorated at all; it was probably sprayed with a clear coat of acrylic paint, or now it would be green with mold 🙂

Happy holidays to everyone!

Now hurry over to Carrie’s blog for more friday foto finish fiesta .

Today I am grateful for my family being together.