Christmas and Nativity

Most Christmas decorations are about the season. These prints are about the story at its center, told in the order the Gospels tell it. It begins in Advent with a Jesse Tree, a young shoot rising from an old stump, for the promise of Isaiah 11 that a branch would come from the root of Jesse. Then Mary rides toward Bethlehem at dusk with Joseph walking beside her, and in the Madonna and Child the words of Isaiah 9:6 sit beneath Mary and her son, a prophecy most people now hear sung in Handel's Messiah.

The Nativity itself appears several times, because families look for different moods. One print is lettered with Luke 2:7, the swaddling clothes and the manger, and another with the angel's announcement of Luke 2:11. The Stable at Night and the Stable in the Cliffs have no text, and Manger and Star is a simple still life for anyone who prefers a quieter image. Silent Night and Let Us Adore Him carry the opening words of two beloved carols. The shepherds have their own scenes: keeping watch by night under Luke 2:8, hurrying to the manger, and looking down on Bethlehem under the Gloria of Luke 2:14. The wise men close the cycle, riding their camels beneath the star of Matthew 2:10, ready for Epiphany in January.

This is Christmas wall art meant to be brought out each December, like the crèche. Hung together in a hallway, a few of them make a small Advent path to the manger; one alone works above a mantel, on a church bulletin board or in a Sunday school room. As Christian wall art they also make a thoughtful Christmas present for grandparents, godchildren or a pastor, and they are a welcome alternative to the snowmen and reindeer in the stores. All of the nativity wall art in this collection is printed to order in the United States on thick matte archival paper, shipped without a frame.