Even though I planned to go home to Richmond for the holidays, I felt an urge to put up a Christmas Tree. I’m not sure why; I suppose nostalgia and sentimentality. Every year I am given at least one Christmas ornament for the holidays. I also pick them up as souvenirs of places I visit. There are ornaments I made in school, ornaments made by my mother, grandmothers, siblings, and nieces, so unpacking them and putting them on the tree becomes a walk down memory lane. 

This year I also wanted to put up my Grandma and Grandpa Toler’s Nativity scene for the first time in a very long time. It’s a little worse for wear with some broken pieces, but it has enormous sentimental value. As a boy, I’m sure I tried the patience of both my grandparents and parents over my obsession with the Nativity scenes they’d put up. I was quite a religious and Christmas was my favorite time of year. I truly believed it to be a day on which all the world would be filled with peace and love for the rest of humanity. I also found the story of the birth of Jesus to be deeply moving. It touched me deeply that he was born in a stable, placed in a manger instead of a crib, and that humble shepherds were the first to receive news of his birth.  

I knew the story so well, so to me, it was imperative that the scene be arranged accurately. It was much more important than any aesthetic considerations. I’d insist that the shepherds come into the scene from the front and left for the manger, and that the wise men come in from the right.  In my mind the east was to the right, probably because that was the case on every map I’d ever seen. I thought of all that as I put up my decorations, and it brought me joy.