For the second year I was asked to be in charge of our stake nativity event. We definitely did some things better this time around. For one thing, the invitations were printed and distributed about a month earlier than last year.
One thing I felt needed improvement was the curtains that were used as barriers to keep people from getting too close to the nativities. Last year it ended up being a last minute addition to create our own barriers instead of renting them, so I didn't have time to get the curtains to fit correctly. They're about a yard wide and they kept separating and looked sloppy, plus they were too long so they dragged on the floor.
This year I worked on curtains many, MANY hours in August and September shortening the curtains and picking out the side seams and then sewing three together so they wouldn't come apart as much.
I had the inspiration to put a Bethlehem city scene on the blue fabric about the walls of the cultural hall, and I was very pleased with how they turned out.
The city scene is cut out of black stabilizer fabric, so it's durable and won't wrinkle or tear as easily paper does.
Another improvement I made this year was to upgrade the signs with the names of the different regions the nativities were from. I bought fancy wooden frames and Kent spray painted them gold. Then I had a sister in the ward cut the names out of vinyl to create the signs. They looked much more professional.
I also had a sister in the ward paint two new signs, like the horizontal "O Little Town of Bethlehem" one below--
the other new sign was the vertical "Joy to the World" in the photo below. Now I have two horizontal signs to put on the long walls in the Cultural Hall and two vertical signs to put on the shorter walls.
I had more volunteers to help and felt like I did much in advance, but still spent 42 hours at the church from Wednesday night to Saturday night. I was so exhausted when it was all over I didn't think I'd have the stamina to do it again another year.
This is a close up of an Italian Fontanini nativity village. It was a new addition this year and the nativity with the most figures.
I learned from my mistakes last year and did a better job of alotting space for the nativities, like giving a larger area for the North American nativities. Another new addition was covering the walls with long voile curtain scarves, which were much easier to put up and covered the walls better than the gossamer fabric I used last year.
Some views of the tables in the center of the cultural hall.
The table with white and clear nativities was crammed full, and I'm considering doing a classroom just with the white and glass nativities next year.
We hung the lights and stars the same as we did last year since I had liked the effect we had.
This year I decided to bring my small Christmas tree covered with wooden German nativity ornaments and put it into the center of one of the tables dedicated to German nativities. (Don't I look tired and frazzled in this picture??)
I had great helpers who coordinated the nativities, food room, children's room.
I was able to salvage most the paper silhouettes from 2017 and put them on the walls in the hallways again this year.
I think they were a nice addition to the overall effect.
I have the silhouettes carefully stored so that we can use them again in 2019. The paper is pretty fragile, but it took hours to trace them and cut them out so I want to use them as much as possible.
After the exhibit was over I was interviewed by a member of the stake who does public affairs, and he was able to get an article published on the online version of the local newspaper. Hopefully the link below will go to the article, where I was quoted:
https://www.fredericksburg.com/features/religion/local-church-presents-nativity-scenes-from-around-the-world/article_2e83f412-8136-5760-b9b5-ee07897c311f.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share&fbclid=IwAR3twdQukaU4PB7XwkA5cMwYp7bqRSd-5XyS1k2RKMElmcTEHUvtJKQimHU
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