A Christmas Tradition

Traditions are very important in my family.My parents and grandparent's were big into celebrating the holiday's and making it special for us kids. Every year both my grandparent's and parents gave my brother and I ornaments. Now as an adult I have boxes full of ornaments dating from my first Christmas to college graduation. Those boxes are still at my parent's house and it's time to collect them this year and bring them home. One of my favorite traditions and Christmas memories is this..

My Grandpa in his free time used to make cakes. I'm talking about cakes that would put some of the cakes on cake bosses to shame. My parent's wedding cake was three tiered with water fountains and lights decorating the cake. It was a masterpiece! Every year on our birthday's my grandpa would make all us grandchildren these elaborate cakes. How we looked forward to this. When I was in kindergarten, since I went to a Catholic school we were actually allowed to celebrate Jesus's Birthday in our class. That year my teacher had us put on a special mass celebrating Jesus's birthday and afterwards we had a big birthday party for Jesus. My Grandpa offered to make the cake. The cake was a simple sheet cake with pretty frosting that read Happy Birthday Baby Jesus on it. On top of the cake was this



This was to be the start of my Fontanini Nativity Set. Every year after that I got a few pieces for my nativity. I started off with the major pieces, Mary, Joseph, the stable, three kings, angels and shepards and expanded to other biblical characters. Every year I looked forward to setting up my nativity in my room and anticipating what new pieces I would get. Each figurine also came along with a story card and every night I would make my dad read me one of the stories. How I loved this time of year

Now my grandpa is gone and this nativity always reminds me of him. I will never forget Jesus's birthday cake nor the traditions and memories my Grandpa created when starting this nativity set. I also left this nativity at my parent's house when we moved because I didn't want it to break and this year we will actually have room in the car to bring it home.
Just the other day I was on the Fontanini Store's website looking to expand my nativity collection when I saw that they had published all the character's stories in one book. I immediately ordered it and it is arranged on my bookshelf in proud display. I read the stories here and then which reminds me so much of my childhood, Christmas with my family and especially of my grandpa.

What is your favorite Christmas tradition