I’m not what you’d call a religious person (I did my time and never looked back). But my mother is, and this year I decided to give her a gift I thought she’d love. So I picked up Reaper’s Nativity (sculpted by the great Sandra Garrity) and got to painting.

I ordered this way back in November, because I knew I would need the time to paint it and base it up so that it was ready for Christmas, and I knew that I would procrastinate until the very last minute. And I did. See, once I made the decision to paint the Nativity scene, it immediately became work. As in no fun. But I stuck to my rule: until it was done, if I wasn’t painting the Nativity, I wasn’t painting anything.

Pretty soon I decided to add the shepherd and sheep to the scene, as it would help to fill out the base (and it would look better). So another order from Reaper was necessary. In case you’re interested, my painting order was Joseph, Wood Backdrop, Mary, Shepherd Boy, and sheep, with Jesus being painted here and there along with the others.

I bought the base at Michael’s, added some stain and polyeurethane. Nothing fancy. I got the plate engraved (“Peace on Earth”) at Things Remembered. I decided to pin all the miniatures to the base so they would stay where I put them, with the exception of baby Jesus. Some people like to keep Jesus out of the Nativity scene until Christmas Day (my mother is one of them), and besides, there’s no way to pin the manger without seeing the pin. He’s the only unattached piece in the scene.

Total cost: $38.00 for the miniatures (plus shipping), about $2 for the base, $24 (!!) for the plate and engraving, and my time…which for my mother, is of course free.

I’m happy with how it came out, especially the star, which I dreaded painting (I hate painting and shading yellow). Hopefully she will like it too.

Merry Christmas to all!