The Twelve Words of Christmas - Nativity Scene by Alba

Nativity Scene

by Alba

First of all, I'd like to thank Simona for hosting me in her Christmas Feature. When she first told me about her idea for her feature "12 Words of Christmas" I found it a fantastic idea. But what word could I choose to focus on? Obviously, when you think of Christmas a lot of words come to mind, starting with family, joy, decorations, lights, presents, food... But I wanted to choose one a bit more special for me and then's when the word (words in this case) "Nativity Scene" came up to me. I don't know popular these scenes are in the UK or in Switzerland but here in Catalonia they are quite a big thing. Everyone has one in their home and some are just ginormous. There are contests you can enter or some people even let you go into their homes so you can admire their creations.

But for me it has a more special meaning. In my home we have always set up a Nativity Scene in our living room. Since I was little I remember that the first weekend of December was always reserved for this task. I would help (and play) with all the figurines, we would go fetch some plants and earth to add the the scene and then we would admire our work and take lots of pictures with it. Over the years the scene just got bigger and bigger. We would go to Christmas Markets (it was a tradition to go to the biggest one in Barcelona at least once) and buy more figurines. I remember one year my dad decided we needed a Roman army in our scene so we got some Roman soldiers and the army has been growing since. 

Even when I moved out of my parents' place. I would almost every year return some weekend in December to help my mum and sister setting the scene up with hot chocolates and cookies near us. At our place we only have a small wooden set my grandma got me some years ago but I'm sure that when we have kids we'll set the most wonderful one with them!

So here is why I picked this word, because of all the memories it evokes in me but also because it's a tradition we enjoy every year at our home. It brings together our family and we always enjoy going to places to check their scenes. 

Alba on Twitter: @albainbookland Alba's Blog:  http://www.albainbookland.com