From Our Wonderful Customers

After we ship an order, our system automatically sends an email to our customer asking them to review the product they received and the service we provided. Once in awhile our review link doesn’t work and our customer writes us directly. It seems that when this happens, our customers shower us with compliments. Being human we wanted to share two of these wonderful emails with you.

From Brenda Robbins:

Camel with Rug Outdoor
Camel with Rug Outdoor

I clicked on the “review me” link but couldn’t understand what to do after it opened, so I will give my review in the form of this email.

The camels exceeded all my expectations, being even more beautiful than the lovely picture online. The quality, colors and detailing are amazing. We purchased all the other Nativity figures last year and were delighted with the beautiful display. I know the addition of our camels will make it even more spectacular this year. What a beautiful way to share the miracle of Jesus’ birth!

I worked with Don Henderson in putting together my Nativity and found him to be incredibly helpful and professional. He was patient and thorough in answering all my questions and dealing with my somewhat exuberant personality. He dispelled all the stereotypes about New Yorkers’ not being warm and friendly and made a convert of this Texas “gal”.

Brenda G. Robbins.

Brenda is very sweet, but shy, so she declined to provide a picture. Instead we are showing the Nativity Camel she purchased and wrote about!


From Milt Westmoreland:

milt-westmorland
Milt Westmoreland

Don,

I was unable to use the enclosed links to praise your product, but I did want to express my gratitude for my beautiful nativity.

When I was a little boy, I always wanted one of those plastic lighted nativities, but my parents would never buy one because we lived so far off the road that no one would see it. I have always wanted one. I began searching for one years ago and never saw one that looked as good as yours. – they all had ugly paint, were unrealistic looking and were very expensive.

When I saw your 12 piece 54” life size nativity, I had to have it. Each piece is a sculpture in itself and the detail on them is marvelous. Their facial expressions almost make them look real.

My nativity arrived promptly (a little early) and intact. I is the most beautiful decoration I have ever owned. I have a large front yard where thousands of people pass each day. During the Christmas season, drivers-by will see this nativity as the testimony of my love for Christ.

I am keeping this purchase a secret from my family and will surprise them in early November. Surly my home will be spectacular this holiday season. I will be sure to send you pictures.

I rate this product 5 stars PLUS!!!

God bless you all!!


Pictures of Us at Christmas Night/Saint Francis Garden

Don at his desk working on an order
Don at his desk working on an order

A picture is worth a thousand words and the social media are proving it. This is a slow sales period for us but we are very busy unloading containers and photographing new items and adding them to our websites. We thought you might want  to see some of us working and give you some idea of how our business functions. We have included images from both our Christmas Night and Saint Francis Garden websites.

Claire in our photography studio, setting up lighting while watched over by the Nutcracker King with Scepter. soon to have his picture taken.
Claire in our photography studio, setting up lighting while watched over by the Nutcracker King with Scepter. soon to have his picture taken.
Codi and the boxer together
Codi and the boxer together
Eddie, Our warehouse manager, making sure that the Nutcracker King is positioned correctly
Eddie, Our warehouse manager, making sure that the Nutcracker King is positioned correctly
Our dog Codi doing what dogs do, checking out the new Boxer before Claire photographs him for our Saint Francis Garden website
Our dog Codi doing what dogs do, checking out the new Boxer before Claire photographs him for our Saint Francis Garden website
Our new warehouse employee, Josh, repacking the Great Dane after photography
Our new warehouse employee, Josh, repacking the Great Dane after photography

As you can see we have a lot of fun with our inanimate friends.

The Five Things Our Customers Want (We Hope)

As a direct marketing business, selling mostly to consumers, we are constantly trying to identify and focus on what will please our customers and keep them coming back. The solid foundation for this effort is our set of values. This can be summarized quite simply as the paraphrased  biblical “Golden Rule” Treat Others as You Would Like to Be Treated. Of course if we didn’t plan, organize and manage for profit we wouldn’t be around to please our customers. Here are the five things we do that we hope  please our customers and keep them coming back.

1. Offer Christmas Products They Can’t Find Elsewhere. This  is easier to do for Christmas Night  because we maintain a sharp focus on large Christmas figures, primarily for outdoor. That means no tree baubles nor tree skirts  and no trees either. Just Life Size Nativities, Nutcrackers, Toy Soldiers, Reindeer and other large figures associated with the celebration of Christmas.

2. Provide Superior Customer Service. I answered a customer call the other day and was happy to take an order for 27″ Nativity Set. When  I asked the customer (as I usually do ) how he found us, he said we were number two on the Google page but we answered our phone and helped him, which the number one ranked  store did not. The term “superior customer service”is a cliche  these days as so many companies claim to offer it. Few companies follow all the way through as we do, even after delivery.

3. Offer Good Value. We don’t always have the lowest prices on our products, we offer free shipping on a limited number of products and we rarely  discount our  product prices. Nevertheless, the product reviews and customer comments seem to confirm that we provide good value. The items which arrive broken are replaced as soon as possible and defective items are repaired or replaced.

4.Maintain High Quality. We have replaced several suppliers who have let their product quality slip, we spot check our incoming shipments and we  constantly work with our factories to improve molding and painting.

5. Make Our Products Easy to Find Online. How many times have you entered a key word or phrase online and the search engine takes you to a website which offers nothing even close to what you want, but owes its prominent  position to search engine tricks. With us, when you have taken the trouble to define exactly what you want, that’s what you get. No “bait and switch”

So there you have it, an opinionated list of what we see as our strengths. Perhaps you don’t agree and think we are off base or blowing smoke. Please tell us. We really do want your feedback

Charleston at Christmas

Our Christmas vacation this year was a trip to The Kiawah Island Golf Resort in the Low Country of South Carolina, not far from the historic city of. Charleston. We took a day to drive into the city, which was bustling with tourists like us and holiday crowds. South Carolina low country has a profusion of churches and Charleston is the same. What is interesting about the churches in the city is the age, history and variety of  christian denominations represented.

We first visited St Michael’s Church on the site of the first Anglican Church built south of Virginia. Erected in 1680 as St Phillips Church and subsequently rebuilt several time to replace buildings destroyed by fire or grown too small for the congregation, the current building was opened for services in 1761. The church exterior is dominated by a near 200 ft steeple and weathervane. The interior is very intimate with the native cedar pews almost on top of the altar and galleries hanging over on three sides. The pews have doors at each end, perhaps to ensure the the right people sit there. To the left of the very high pulpit is a small platform where the very small Nativity Set was placed. We thought this an insufficient display for such an historic and inspiring church.

We had been advised to visit the French  Huguenot Church, built in the ” French Quarter” of  Charleston in 1844. The Huguenots were French Calvinists who faced suppression in France and were very nearly wiped by successive Louis Kings. Growing up English Protestant in Montreal. I can remember being surprised to hear of a French Protestant school surviving in a sea of French Catholics. The present Huguenot church in Charleston, like St Michaels, was rebuilt after a fire and survived damage from the Civil War and the Charleston Earthquake. When we visited, the church was closed for major exterior renovation. Not surprisingly services are conducted in English, except for an annual service in French to  celebrate spring.

We then visited the main Roman Catholic Cathedral of St John the Baptist, which is a newly constructed but large and inspiring version of classic church design.As is usual in Catholic churches, there were about five different things going on at the same time. I have always been impressed with their level of activity and utilization of their facilities on days other than Sunday. A very good business model.

We had lunch at S N O B, which is not elitist but stands for Slightly North Of  Broad (street). Reservations were required and the food was a wonderful blend of southern and foreign influences.

After lunch we went looking for a Nativity customer who had purchased our Christmas Nativity 40″ and had asked us to drop by when we were in Charleston. The city is a small area and much easier to walk around than drive. Our customer was in a classic Charleston house on a corner of the Historic Area south of Broad Street and  sheltered from the street by a wall and wrought iron fence. With luck, we found the creche and had a nice chat with the family. They plan to buy a a larger stable and add new pieces to the Nativity,  including the  camel.

Disappearing Reindeer?

Just in time for Christmas, the New York Times published an op-ed piece by a Canadian wildlife biologist Justina Ray entitled ReindeerAre Fading Into Holiday Myth . Her premise was that climate change and development make it hard for the caribou (also called reindeer) to survive. According to the article, development projects and resource exploration are shrinking their wilderness refuge and roads and other access for resource development are making it easier for hunters to reach the caribou. I guess the controversial Keystone IX oil pipeline project to carry Canadian Tar Sands oil to the US Gulf and the whole Canadian Tar Sands development are part of this dramatic reduction in the Caribou habitat.

Apparently global climate change and instability is also a major factor in caribou herd reduction. In their normal environment, as harsh as it is, who would have thought that too much ice and snow would harm them-but it make it difficult to find their food sources under the snow pack. Combined with unpredictable weather and the increased number of forest fires and tundra fires caused by this, there is much higher calf and female mortality.

Since everybody talks about global weather instability (Global Warming) but nobody does anything about it, global politics will ensure that this source of caribou decimation will only get worse.

And, given that hydrocarbon sources in the Middle East will become more and more unstable and risky, development of these resources in the far north of Europe, Asia and North America, ironically made easier by Global Warming, will continue more rapidly in the coming decades.

Sadly, we must conclude that the decimation of the vast caribou herds once found in Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin,, Michigan, Vermont,New Hampshire, Maine, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick will continue. A natural result of the growth of human population  and human enterprise.

So, along with the historical Nativities and St Nicholas(Santa Claus) and fanciful Toy Soldiers and Nutcrackers we will eventually remember the reindeer as either  Christmas Holiday history or myth

Advice on Buying A Nativity

Everyone loves a deal! In these days of “free shipping”, “free returns”, coupons and big discounts for internet purchases it’s easy to forget the need to ensure the quality of the set, the continuity of supply and the ability to find matching pieces in future years. I will expand on these three concepts in this blog.

Quality of the Set: The best and most durable of the many Holy Family  and Nativity and Creche scenes being offered these days are made of fiber glass and ,with sets up to about 40″ tall ,with a filled poly resin. The fiber glass sets are made in the same way that small to mid size  boats are made and are very durable and resistant to cracking or chipping. The filled poly resin sets are also strong, although, pieces over 40″ , in our experience, may become brittle and crack easily. The paint should always be outdoor, sunlight resistant. Painted poly resin figures may need a clear coat sealant.

Continuity of Supply: Many stores and websites in the garden, home furnishing and even discount retailing are offering a few Nativity figures, usually a Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Once these sets are sold, at very low prices, there is no certainty that they will ever carry these items again. That can leave you searching high and low next year and the year after to add to or complete your set.

Finding Matching Pieces. While you may find Nativity pieces of a similar size next year, there is no guarantee that you will be able to complete your set with all figures designed and built to create a complete and integrated scene. It is very likely, that when you do find these pieces, they will cost quite a bit more than your original pieces and will not be offered with free shipping. Respect for a special kind of product and what it stands for as well as dedication to offering the very best quality and service to our customers are more important to us than the latest internet fad.

The Middle of the Busy Season

Just past November 1 and our season is in full steam. Each year is unique and this season is no exception. Our new Toy Soldiers and Nutcrackers are selling very well as are the various Santa,  Sleigh and Reindeer sets we put together for this year. Our larger than life and life size Nativities and Holy Families are in demand and we are having trouble keeping up with the orders for our Nativity Stables.

Our Christmas and Artisan Nativities from Joseph’s Studio are starting to move well and this later action is normal for the smaller Nativity  sets. 38200stWhat is surprising is the slow sales of our beautiful   Fabric and Resin Nativity and 2D Wood Nativities. Watch for a promotion on these shortly!

We wanted to share with you a wonderful testimonial that we received in September from a Church in South Carolina.

” We received many compliments on the pieces purchased last December. These new pieces, which are beautiful beyond words, will really add to the scene. You need to see them to appreciate the quality of these  figures. Pictures just do not do them justice -……………….Thanks for all of your input and help——–Not sure how to do the rating, but all would be 10!”

Thank you Jo Helen!

Weather and Christmas Celebration

almanac-2012On the second day of Autumn it may seem too early to look ahead to the coming winter and the winter weather forecast. Nevertheless, we have to plan our Christmas decorating with the expected weather in mind. The Farmers Almanac 2012 winter outlook (FarmersAlmanac.com) says “Get ready for a winter of crime and punishment”

To summarize the predictions  from the Farmers Almanac, the East will have very wet and stormy conditions with above average temperatures and a lot of wet snow. This forecast will also apply to the Eastern Great Lakes and the Southern Plains. Below normal temperatures will dominate the Northern Plains and the Western Great Lakes, while the rest of the country will have a normal winter except for the Southeast which will very mild and  wet.

So, with the upcoming winter predicted to be “an unusually tough one” for most of the country, how should we plan our Christmas decorating. One suggestion is to bring some of your outdoor decorating inside. A beautiful and inspiring alternative to our many Life Size Decorations and Outdoor Nativity Sets, Scenes and Creches is our Life Size Indoor Nativity Sets and Scenes. Designed and fabricated in the Philippines by skilled designers and crafts people who are also devout Christians, these unique resin and fabric and plush figures will help you celebrate the true meaning of Christmas and will offer your church an attractive alternative to the Nativity display.

68612stRegardless of the weather predictions, many people will still set up beautiful outdoor displays. We suggest that you be sure to tether your taller figures and displays to the ground with posts and guy wires to ensure they are not toppled by high winds and wet snow. Clean the snow off your figures and spotlights and try to ensure that you painted fiberglass and resin figures don’t get frozen in or are left in standing water as this amt induce cracking and chipping of the paint. When you bring your figures and displays in at the end of the season, be sure to wipe them with a damp cloth without using detergent or liquid cleaner. Do not power wash any painted fiberglass or resin figure as this can strip the paint from the surface.

The Christmas Season is a glorious time of year for children, families and Christians of all churches to celebrate. A little advance planning can make your decorating less stressful.

Five Things to Consider When Planning a Christmas Display

Summer is nearly over. How did it go by so quickly? Now that we are past Labor Day, it is time to plan this year’s Christmas display. There are a number of considerations and I would like to address what we consider are the five most important.

  1. 37006stIs the focus religious or secular or both? With the modern holiday celebration of Christmas it is easy to forget that it evolved as a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Many Christians consider it very important to make this statement by displaying a Nativity Scene or Creche. Many people also view Christmas as a holiday for children, so the Santa, Snowman, Nutcracker or Toy Soldier have become an important part of the non-religious Christmas mythology.
  2. Is your display to be indoor or outdoor, or both? Of course, much of the Christmas ritual is centered on the Christmas tree with all of the traditional decorations and accessories and the family traditions that go along with it. Many religious people have replaced some or all of the baubles and tree skirts and, in some cases, even the tree, with an indoor Nativity Scene. Out door displays whether a Nativity creche or a Nutcracker, need to be large enough to be visible and are usually spotlighted. Here, location is important, if they are to be seen on  the street.
  3. 38200stWhere and how are you going to store your Christmas display? Some displays are lighted wire shapes which fold flat and are easily stored, standing up against a wall or lying down. The same storage convenience applies to the painted wood panel 2D Nativity figures and sets. The three dimensional fiber glass or resin mix Nativity or other Christmas statues will require some prior planning for off season storage.If convenient, we recommend that you store these pieces in the carton or crate they were shipped in. These can be stored in a garage, attic, warehouse or annex that is dry and safe. If there isn’t room to use the original boxes, the individual pieces can be wrapped in bubble wrap and laid flat on the floor and on top of each other, up to a safe height. Resin and fabric figures should always be stored in the original carton in a dry area.
  4. How are you going to keep your Christmas display safe and secure? On our website under the heading “Useful Information” we offer a number of suggestions about securing your outdoor Nativity and other Christmas statues and displays. These include tethering, attaching or otherwise connecting the statue to something immovable, like the ground. Indoor displays should be set up away from fireplaces or hot electric lights.
  5. The last consideration is your budget. You will want to view this kind of purchase as an investment. Our  fiberglass and polyresin pieces are not yesterday’s cheap throwaway  plastic figures lighted from the inside or the soft vinyl blow ups which wilt overnight. With proper cleaning and storage they will last you a long time. Whatever your budget, don’t for get to include the cost of shipping/delivery for your item or set.

These are our five key factors. What are yours? Please let us know and, for the best submission, as determined by us, we will give $100.00 off the price of any of our items which sell  for $1200.00 or more.

Nativity Scenes in Other Lands

reforma-1A few years ago we were visiting Mexico City at Christmas and our friends told us about the displays of Nasciamentos or Nativity Scenes on Avenida Reforma, a main thoroughfare in the City. Each display had been sponsored  by local businesses, non -profit organizations, government departments and charities. They were then rendered by artists from the area. In the tradition of  Saint Francis of Assisi, there was a live Nativity Scene with adult and child actors and animals.

At Christmas, Mexico City is warm during the day and cold at night but mostly sunny, when the sun  can cut through the smog. Reforma is a six lane boulevard with a large city park at one end and statues of revolutionary heroes and majestic fountains dominating the round-abouts at major intersections. Traffic, as with all traffic in Mexico City, is always heavy, so crossing the boulevard to view and photograph the Nativities was a challenge.

reforma-2Many viewers of the scenes were foreign tourists like us, but many were Mexican families, perhaps from villages and rural areas. There were busloads of children and adults from schools and affinity groups and city dwellers out for a stroll. The whole scene creates a pleasant memory for us and a contrast with our own country where a display like this would be nearly impossible.