5 Steps to Buy a Christmas Nativity Set

60550stWe often talk with groups looking to raise the funds to buy a new Nativity scene for their organization, church, hospital, municipality or charity. They may be looking to replace a Nativity that they have had for years or they may be buying a Nativity Set for the first time. In this blog, we offer some steps and suggestions to help you and your organization achieve this objective.

1. Take advantage of our offer on our website under “Information Request”. Tick off the items that you want pictures and more information on , provide your mailing address and contact information and we will send you full color 8″x11′ photos of any of the sets requested, along with set data and shipping cost to your zip code. This will all be contained in an attractive presentation folder, which can be used at purchasing committee meetings or given to the decision maker. The photos are high quality and can be used to make posters and hand outs for group fund raising.

2. Successful fund raising may start with the identification of a potential benefactor. In a church or charity, this may be someone remembering a loved one, a long time supporter or congregant or a board member. This person may offer a contribution matching monies raised by the group or committee or they may provide the full amount. Remember to involve them in the process as much or as little as they want. They make the rules.

3. The keys in group fund raising is volunteers and communication. Create a committee with clear responsibilities , not just opinions and set some targets with timing and amounts. Critics and opinionated people can be challenged to either donate time or money to back up their opinions. Once an objective is agreed, the research becomes the most important next step. Use the internet search engines to locate Nativity alternatives, which are rarely available in local retail stores.

4. Once your group has decided which Nativity set to purchase, you will want to consider some money raising techniques. In a church, for example, these may include bake sales, silent auctions, “Christmas in July” and “Nativity Tree” and many other fund raising activities. Local businesses  may want to contribute or the local municipality may have a budget for Christmas celebration. Charitable organizations may be able to obtain grants which match funds raised by the fund raisers..

5. Always try to identify your target donor or donor group and tailor your communications and events to them. After a successful  campaign, be sure to give credit to the hard working fund raisers and to especially  thank the donors. At any point in this process, if you think we can help, please contact us

The Plastic Reindeer Rule-An Opportunity

life-size-santaIn my last blog I discussed the so called “Plastic Reindeer Rule” created by the US Supreme Court. In summary, this ruling seems to require that any display of religious significance, such as a Christmas Creche or Nativity Scene, should be accompanied by a secular Christmas figure such as a Santa , Toy Soldier, Nutcracker or Reindeer.

Even this interpretation of the ruling is open to challenge by parties like the ACLU. In other cases a Giant Creche placed in New York City’s Central Park at the corner of 5th Avenue and 57th St, seemed to cause little comment. If a municipality or local community wants to play it safe, we may be able to help. Beginning this week, August 8 and through September 30, 2011, we are offering a 10% discount on the price of any Life Size Snowman, Santa, Toy Soldier,  Nutcracker or Caroler Set ordered along with a Life Size or Giant Nativity Scene, such as a 43150 or 41102. Please refer to the discount code “Reindeer 2011″

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The Plastic Reindeer Rule and Christmas in July

The many celebrations of Christmas in July brought to mind the understandable confusion created by the various  interpretations of what has become known as the “Plastic Reindeer Rule”. This decision by the Supreme court in 1984 refers to a Pawtucket RI case (Lynch v. Donnelly) wherein the court ruled that the city did not violate the separation of church and state when it included a Nativity scene among a number of other Christmas holiday decorations(plastic reindeer, candy canes, a wishing well, a Jewish menorah) displayed in a public park. Please see a concise discussion of this and other significant holiday cases.

Its important to note that this ruling only applies to public/government property not private property and may be modified by specific state laws or circumstances. To quote the Pew Forum on Religious Displays and the Courts ” The Supreme Court has relied heavily on a close examination of the particular history and context of each display and has largely sidestepped setting clear rules that would assist the lower courts in deciding future cases”

holy-family-catholic-league-nyc-2010So what does  this all mean to a municipality or business planning a Christmas Holiday Display? In our opinion, if you are replacing an existing creche or Nativity which you have had for a substantial period of time, don’t hesitate, the law is on your side. If you are planning a new display on municipal or state property, combine several secular pieces (Santa, Nutcracker, Snowman) with the Nativity Scene. And, of course, if your display is on church or private property, even in a high traffic, high visibility location, the law is entirely on your side.

We welcome your comments

More New Arrivals

This is an exciting and busy time of year for us. Our warehouse staff is working hard unloading multiple steel shipping containers containing boxes of our products manufactured in our factories in China and the Philippines. At the same time Claire, our buyer( and President) is busy photographing new items and sets which have just arrived so we can add or update the pictures on our website.

Some of these new items are additions to our Nativity Sets and Outdoor Nativity Scenes as well as a new Toy Soldier. We believe that it is important to continually improve and  add to our sets and individual items. We work with our factories and their designers and model makers to create new and improved Wise Men, Angels and Shepherds as well as adding dogs, goats and various barnyard animals and fowl to our Nativity Scenes.

On our website, you will now see the various social  media icons, including Facebook and Twitter. We hope you will “like” our site and share your photos and stories with us. We will be creating “Tweetable” stories and offers in the next few months as we develop these tools. More on this in our next post.

About Us- Our Values

During our many years in business, both working for large public corporations, privately owned companies and running our own businesses, we have seen the importance of corporate and individual values on how the company is perceived by its customers and on the success of the organization. Most of us have experienced  “customer service”  with no phone number, no one to answer if there is one, or the endless waits and dead end extensions of a modern customer communication system. Generally, what that ‘”communicates” to us is that the only thing important about us as a customer is when we pay our money and “please go away”.

A recent poll by Young and Rubicam, the advertising agency, discovered that during and  “post recession” consumers were placing more importance on a company’s “kindness and empathy”, “friendliness”,” high quality” and “socially responsible”. It was reported that, between 2005 and 2009, US consumers reported a fourfold increase in in their preference for companies that show kindness in their operations and in their encounter with customers.

Claire and I have always believed that we should treat our customers the way we would like to be treated if we were customers ourselves. Simply put, we believe in the “Golden Rule”-“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Have we faltered and had glitches in our customer response? Of course! We are human after all.

Nevertheless, we are constantly trying to offer the best Life Size Nativities, Toy Soldiers and Nutcrackers and Outdoor Christmas Decor. We regularly improve on and add new products and we stand by the products we offer. We visibly display our toll free telephone number on our website and we try to answer customer calls, 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. More on this in the next post.

In the meantime, I will share with you the beautiful new Life Size Nativity 15 piece with Stable Item 43151. This set  has a new Ox and Donkey, a new King Balthazar and a chicken!43151st00

Options for Outdoor Nativity Scenes

Ever since Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Claire used live animals and local villagers to stage the Christmas Nativity, Christians in North America and around the world have used all variety of materials and figures to represent the birth of Jesus Christ. These include  banana leaves, wood and straw in Mexico,  carved wood figures in the Philippines, plastic resin and fiberglass statues in the US and Canada and  Renaissance marble works of art in Europe.

Our offerings for Outdoor Nativity Scenes are neither wood and straw nor marble, but rather fiberglass and plastic resin. These are manufactured in Asia using processes similar to building a small boat, which, hopefully will make them durable and long lasting. They are finished with sunlight resistant paint. The figures are fairly heavy, weighing as much as 90 pounds for a large life size King. Nevertheless, we strongly recommend some sort of tethering for each piece to reduce the possibility of damage from tipping over and vandalism as well as theft.

We also offer Nativity Sets with a two dimensional “cut out” look in painted wood. Each of these pieces comes with a base and attachments which can be used to create an attractive tableau in limited space.95200nst

Exciting New Items for Christmas Decorating

Our major product focus has always been on large outdoor Christmas decoration figures. These include outdoor Nativity scenes and toy soldiers and nutcrackers. We realized, from customer feedback and our own research, that we had to broaden the category of Christmas outdoor decor. So we worked, with our designers and the factory technicians, to create new concepts and figures.

32700stFirst was our new four piece Caroler Set which attractively updated the conventional Dickens era dress and look for Christmas Carolers. We augmented this set with a fabric and resin Indoor Caroler set, which will arrive shortly. Other festive  fabric and resin figures, new this year include the Jester,  Santa with a Horn and Vintage Santa.

We have added more of the beautiful plush animals both for the Nativity and for other Christmas decoration. These include the life size goat and baby lamb as well as brown and white hens, reindeer, dogs, deer and polar bear. A set of two penguins completes the array.

More on our new items in the next blog.

Outdoor Versus Indoor Christmas Decor

60680stFrom the beginning of our business in 1999, we have focused on outdoor Christmas decor.We found that there wasn’t a good selection of large, high quality and durable outdoor figures such as Santa, Snowmen, Toy Soldiers, Nutcrackers, Reindeer,and particularly Nativities and Creche scenes.We have greatly expanded the available  selection of these products and our customers have expressed their appreciation.

Recently, it became apparent that there was a need and demand for indoor Christmas figures that went beyond the traditional “trim a tree” selection of lights, baubles, tinsel, tree skirts, tree stands and Christmas stockings. so we decided to create the category of indoor Christmas decor. We began last year by offering a limited selection of  beautiful, large resin and fabric Nativity figures made by one of our factories. These sold well and we have expanded the Nativities to include plush animals and new Nativity figures such as Shepherds and Angels.

In addition we have designed a wonderful new Caroling Family, with a 52in Father and Mother and a 44in daughter and 42in son. Complementing this family are two resin and fabric Santa and , just for fun, two Jesters.

More on our new items next week.

More About New Arrivals

37005st2A great benefit in dealing directly with overseas factories is that we can design and build new products which we can then offer exclusively. This means that when we experience significant customer interest in a large nutcracker, for example, we can come up with new larger size or different look and expand our business while satisfying customer desires.

We have created a number of new pieces for our Life Size Nativity Set.

We have also created two new six and one half foot (78in) Nutcracker Kings which arrive in early June.

Our First Christmas Arrivals

This is the time of year when we have visited all our factories, approved all our new designs and placed most of our orders. We have been waiting impatiently for our first shipping containers to arrive so we can start shipping our many advance orders for Nativity Sets both indoor and outdoor.Many churches, municipalities and businesses order early to ensure they get their set, because of budget timing or because they were too late deciding last year and we were sold out.

We are very excited about showing our best selling Life Size Nativity with a new King and new larger Ox and Donkey and Lambs.

43151st1Our Life Size African American Nativity has several new figures including a black Gloria Angel and Black Shepherd and is now 12 piece.

We have designed and made a new  five foot Toy Soldier and we have a Nutcracker King coming in a month or so.

All in all, a great time of year for us and our customers