A few years ago “This Is The Place Park” in Salt Lake City started doing a Christkindlmarkt. This park is an outdoor living history museum with pioneer homes and stores. I have enjoyed going to this lovely winter market for the past few years – 2020 being the exception due to it being cancelled because of Covid. In 2019 one of the booths had the cutest ornaments made from beeswax – “Farm and Hive”.

I bought a Nativity from this darling couple from Payson, Utah. They have a farm where they raise bison, beef, and bees. Susie makes beeswax ornaments from their very own bees, using antique molds. Beeswax ornaments originated in Germany.

Each year I make a lot of neighbor gifts – generally around 100! Ron and I give out about 50 of these, the rest are for family and long-time friends to give to their own neighbors.

I start thinking about and planning these gifts a year in advance. I like them to have some sort of special meaning, and try to incorporate “LIGHT” into them if possible.

This year I decided to do a Nativity gift using blackened beeswax ornaments rubbed with cinnamon. The smell is intoxicating! I was on a beeswax cinnamon high by the time I got home from my two hour trip to Payson to pick them up. I wouldn’t mind if my car and home smelled like this year round! In fact, I actually leave some of the ornaments I bought a few years ago up all the time – including my tiny Nativity ornament.

Part of the magic of gift giving is the presentation, and this is also something I put a lot of thought, time and effort into. This year was no different, and once again the word “simple” was not in my vocabulary!

I started out with the wonderfully simple ornament, and ended up with a very detailed finished product.

I searched online for the perfect clear container. I wanted it to be a round cylinder with paper-bag Kraft brown ends for the top and bottom. I found the perfect size and shape online from “PaperMart”. They shipped them quickly, and each one was great quality!

After I got the containers, I realized the ornament would sit too far down in the container, and that called for some creative work on my “Cameo Silhouette” to make a one inch tall chunky rosette, with a circle glued on top from paper-bag Kraft brown card stock.

These were inexpensive, but took a lot of paper, and time to cut. I’ve learned to multi-task when I’m cutting this type of time consuming projects on my Cameo Silhouette. My machine has pretty much run non-stop since September!

I used thin temporary glue dots to stick the ornament to the chunky rosette. Then I cut crinkled nesting paper into ½” lengths to cover the chunky rosette and soften the base the ornament sat on.

I added a small sprig of faux evergreen behind the ornament to give it a pop of color and add some texture and dimension.

The container came with a nice satin ribbon tied in a bow.

But as usual I wanted to add my signature ribbon streamers tied together in a bundle with a miniature gold mercury glass star ornament. I ordered these from Amazon, but they are made by “Luna Bazaar”.

To attach the “May Arts” ribbon bundle, I ordered Antique Copper metal brads with a jump ring that I attached to the center of the lid on top from Amazon. This is what I tied the ribbon bundles to.

I thought I would be done as soon as I added a long skinny forked tag, but discovered it needed a “LIGHT”. After assembling 100 of these, my creative juices were waning. I didn’t have the energy to figure out how to put a light on the inside of the lid to shine down on the Nativity ornament, AND that would have been difficult because it was already assembled and the lid was attached.

Once again Amazon came to the rescue as I searched and searched for the perfect, yet inexpensive lights! I ended up using lights that are normally used in balloons, they even had a little loop at the end to tie a natural linen string to. I added it to the ribbon bundle, nestling it behind the ribbon and just above the mercury glass star. With the bundle to the right side of the front of the container, it was the perfect placement to light up the Nativity, as well as the mercury glass star in the ribbon bundle.

I LOVE to create gifts that are unique, have meaning, and become a keepsake. As I’ve mentioned before, my love language is gifts. I show my love and appreciation to those in my life by giving of my time to create special gifts. I’ve done this for as long as I can remember. Ronnie and I make the perfect team. I make the gifts, and he happily delivers each and every one.

I LOVE the Savior, I LOVE Christmas, and I LOVE Light!!!! I can’t think of a more perfect gift to portray these three things! Christmas can be filled with LIGHT, even in the midst of darkness.

May we all look for ways to worship the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, and share of our Light through serving others. For more ideas and ways to share LIGHT – look up #LightTheWorld from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Have a wonderful Christmas! May you be blessed with Light, Love, Family, and Health!

Love Ya, Les ☺

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Beeswax Nativity Neighbor Gifts