From the time our oldest was a tiny tot, we’ve chosen to have touchable Christmas decorations. Oftentimes we leave them under the tree so as to give them an alternative to touching the pretty tree.
The nativity shown above is one my mom picked up somewhere several years back. It is perfect for little hands! However, I cannot find it anywhere on the internet.
We also own a well-loved Playmobil Nativity Set:
Ours is the older version. My sister purchased this for our family when there but 2 children in our household. It has held up remarkably well, but I must say the newer one with the more sturdy stable, looks MUCH better and someday we will probably move to that. (Baby Jesus’ head has been glued on a number of times…*sigh*)
I saw where Melissa & Doug have a Nativity set, and most of the time I love their stuff, but I’m not sure I like this one. I think if I hadn’t already fallen in love with our sets, I would be more apt to purchase the Little People set:
These are super cute and nice and chunky for little hands.
Now, I want to step back to my childhood for a moment…
I can remember the hours, yes – hours, I played with our family nativity set that sat on the antique dresser in our living room. With Christmas hymns wafting in the background and the softness of lamplight illuminating the room, I moved the resin pieces up and down the antique clock, in and out of the cranberry glass and all around the stereoscope that made up the landscape of my playtime.
Those are the memories I want for my children.
And those are the memories I am pretty sure I am creating for my children.
Do you have any touchable decorations? What Christmas memories of your own do you hope to recreate for your children?
Carolyn from A Purpose Driven Home put together this wonderful list of FREE nativity toys you can do yourself that are very child-friendly. Thanks so much for sharing, Carolyn!
We have multiple nativity sets. One is a Fisher Price set that we keep on a low table where littles can play with it. I love it! I don’t think I’ve seen Joseph since we set it up this year, but that’s ok. The wise men can be the father figures. LOL
LOL! We’ve done really well until this year. Now, they are disappearing right and left! Really interested in the Little People set for next year!
I love the Little People nativity. We’ve just added that one this year!
Good to know! Leaning toward that one for next year!
We love hands on! We have the little people nativity and the shepherd set (from several years ago). We also have bells on our Christmas tree. Bells to ring when we are singing Christmas songs, playing etc. While we don’t encourage taking the other ornaments off the tree its not a big deal, the lower ones are mostly safe for our littles. We just encourage them to put them back on if they take them off.
I’ve been afraid of dressing up our house too much for Christmas, with destructive toddlers around, so I really appreciate knowing there are child-friendly alternatives out there!
What really struck me, and usually does when I consider my own childhood, were your final ruminations:
“I moved the resin pieces up and down the antique clock, in and out of the cranberry glass and all around the stereoscope…”
I did the same thing! My grandmother collected nativity sets – fragile, breakable glass or resin pieces – and set them around her house filled with antique furniture.
Yet she always let me play with them, and I don’t recall ever breaking a single one.
It sometimes baffles me what has happened in the last 30 years: Have our children changed so much… or have we changed?
*sigh*…Honestly, I think what happened was “we” (as a collective) don’t expect much from our children and assume they will be destructive little monsters. We had a landlord years ago who’s house was filled with antiques. His philosophy was, “Don’t baby-proof the house, House-proof the baby.” I’ve tried to keep that in mind, while understanding that children do sometimes break things and those things I really don’t want broken are simply “off-limits.”
Thank you for sharing my memories with me!
“House proof the baby.” I love that idea!
Ever since becoming a mother, I’ve heard advice pouring in from friends, doctors, magazines:
Don’t keep furniture around with sharp corners… Put child-safety latches on cupboards… Keep safety plugs in every outlet… Disinfect EVERYTHING your child might touch or chew upon…
And while all of these things seem like good common-sense advice, I still have to remind myself that my parents never did any of those things for me! LOL
Of course we worry about our children getting hurt… but you’re right… I guess parents in general might be taking the wrong approach by trying to prevent every conceivable accident from happening, rather than teaching kids how to behave properly.
His thought was also that if they you didn’t house-proof baby, you could never go anywhere that wasn’t baby-proofed and we like to travel and visit others, so it just made sense.
My siblings and I had a tiny Nativity set we could play with when we were kids. We had hours of fun with it and it really made the Christmas story come alive. I found a replica of the set I used to play with and got it for my children along with a soft set for younger children. (Tip: check your local Christian Book Store as ours has all the Christmas stuff 50% off after Christmas. Great time to get gifts for next year!) I keep all their Christmas books (they each get a new one each year) and the Nativities in a box under the Christmas tree for the kids to play with.
Here’s the one we have, but it looks like it’s been discontinued
For dumb…here’s the link. Sorry, late night last night.
http://pinterest.com/pin/725197563/
Thanks for sharing! That does look neat. Pretty sure the one I have was some sort of after Christmas sale my mom found and it doesn’t exist anymore.
My 4 yo is spending hours playing with our Little People Nativity & we have a chunky wood nativity and cloth nativity. He will integrate all 3 of those sets. He has them all on the fireplace hearth right now & I think it is the first time he has had the angel on the top of the stable, usually he puts the donkey up there:)
LOL – the mental picture of the donkey on top of the stable is cracking me up!
We just got the Melissa & Doug nativity today. It seems sturdy and toddler-friendly, and that’s why I chose it! Hope we can get a lot of years out of it.
Let me know how they end up liking it!
Received mine today, the kids absoluetely loved putting it all together!
Funny, because as we were pulling out the decorations this year, I set all the play nativities over on a little side table. All of the sudden, the kids realized they were there, and that was it. They were done decorating the tree, and instead, took up playing Christmas. My oldest is 9, and he still loves it.
Isn’t it amazing how drawn they are to nativity sets?! Love it!
How great that you remember playing with the nativity set as a child. We have yet to find one that is child friendly, hopefully this year.
My hope is that my children too will have some wonderful memories of Christmas.
Not ALL of our decoratoins are touchable. I seem to have been syaing that alot this week
We do have a very loved stuffed nativity and the Little People nativity set and LOVE them.
We have an older version of the LittlePeople Nativity and the little ones love it. I set it up under the tree so they can play with it. It is actually one of the only “always accessable” toys during Advent and it gets lots of love. Also, the ornaments on the lower half of the tree are soft, non-breakable ones that are often removed and carried around clutched in little fingers. I do encourage them to leave them on the tree, but don’t want to make a discipline issue out of a favorite Christmas tradition.
True – pick you battles
Your great post inspired me to share some DIY nativity sets on my website! http://www.apurposedrivenhome.com/diy-toddler-nativity-toys/
Excellent! I’ll be sharing these!
Oh, wow, Amy! Thank you so much for sharing my link!! YOU were the one to inspire the post to begin with.
And thanks again for all the great Christmas posts that help keep things Christ-centered. It has been very encouraging and inspiring to this mom of three young ones! 