Category: Customer Stories

We recently wrote about several different approaches to raising small capital funds  from church members to purchase a beautiful new Nativity scene. These programs included presentation packages of large color photos and information for the buying committee, a “Christmas in July” party with a Christmas tree decorated with pictures of the individual Nativity figures with their purchase price written on the back and a silent auction gathering again with the opportunity for members of the congregation to buy individual  pieces to complete the set. All of these methods have  worked  effectively for our customers who have reported them to me.

A recent program involved a few more steps, but was equally successful. The decision makers group decided what Nativity set they wanted asked us for the shipping cost and several full color 81/2×11 photos of the set, then sent out letters to all parishioners, describing the set, spelling out how many donations of a certain minimum amount they would need and inviting people to commit the following Sunday at church, with sign up sheet beside the large photos of the set. They were over subscribed!.

Between, bake sales, cookbook sales, raffles and many other ideas, most churches are very innovative in raising money for capital items. We offer to help any way we can.

We will share with you a wonderful story about raising money to pay for new Nativity set to replace an aged creche. This is written by Joni Lawlor a member of St Paul’s Mission in Hague,  Virginia. We found it inspiring and entertaining.

Joni Lawlor writes “ Last December when uncrating the nativity scene at St Paul’s Mission in Hague Virginia, a couple of things happened. First, a mouse popped out of the box, causing quite a stir among the ladies who were uncrating the set. And secondly, no one could find King Melchior. The aged set was a bit dilapidated with several appendages missing from the shepherds and angels. It was soon after, that Father John O’Donohue, Parochial Vicar at St Paul’s located a beautiful set made  in Italy by fine craftsmen. The nativity set by Fontanini, came  with a large price tag.

And that’s when the idea of holding a “Christmas in July” fund raising event was initiated. July is a perfect month to hold a fund raiser. Our location in the Northern Neck of Virginia brings many summer visitors to St Paul’s.  At times there is standing room only at the three weekend masses.

The Christmas Night company out of  Saratoga Springs NY was very helpful, sending pictures of each piece with their prices on each photo. Parishioners were urged to “adopt” one of the fifteen pieces. The first to go was Baby Jesus, then Mary , Joseph and the Magi. The barn animals were harder to sell but in the end all the pieces were adopted by generous parishioners and visitors. The outdoor  nativity set was also replaced by a beautiful stone/resin set from Christmas Night Inc.

The event followed a 5 pm mass on July 25th ironically, exactly five months from Christmas. Many people stayed to enjoy a wine and cheese reception and to look at photos of the original pieces of the set that hung from a Christmas tree. Father O’Donohue expressed his thanks to all who contributed and urged all to come down to St Paul’s next Christmas to see the new sets.

This is a wonderful story and has prompted us to develop a program to asssist churches with their fund raing programs for new Nativity sets. We will talk more about this in our blog and we encourage readers of this blog to post suggestions as to how we can best assist fund raising.

We sell a number of our Nativity sets to churches and we often receive a request from a church official or the head of the purchase committee for a reference from another church that has recently purchased a similar set. I am going to share with you a reply we had from one of our unique and satisfied customers. This email was addressed to the president of our company and had a copy of the reference email attached.

“Claire (our president), a gentleman from your company asked if I would mind being used as a reference for your company. I told him that would be fine. I do not remember his name, but would like to him to have a copy of my response to a prospective customer. If you would make sure the appropriate person gets this, I would appreciate it”.

Her email letter then starts” Mr___________, Cedar Island United Methodist Church is a small rural church, we only have about 75 members, but do have a lot of children (what a blessing). We have had an old plastic nativity set since I can remember. We decided a couple of years ago that we were going to start a nativity scene fund and just have members what they could along. We began getting $5.00 and $10.00 donations. It took us a while but we finally raised what we needed to make a purchase. When I called Christmas Night Inc. they did not have the set we wanted (the 5 piece, we were going to add to each year). A wonderful customer service representative worked with us to get the 10 piece set for not much more than we had raised. God is good, when we made the announcement at church the amount we were short, it was collected that week. We placed the order and it came quickly. One of the wise men’s knees was cracked. we called, simply took a photo and emailed it to the company and within a couple of days we got the replacement. The pieces are absolutely beautiful. We could hardly believe that a small church could have anything that beautiful. It looks like something you would see in a big church in a big city. Needless to say, our members and children are delighted and cannot wait until we bring them out again. The folks at Christmas Night are wonderful and add a personal touch to their customer service. I would recommend this company to anyone looking for a nativity scene for their church. If you have any other questions, please feel free to get in touch with me” (signed) Charran Gaskill

This wonderful letter had us blushing but also wanting to share her heartfelt sentiments.

We originally added stories to our website to improve our Google page positions with more relevant content. We wrote our own stories and requested Christmas and St Francis related stories from friends and families. We also paid professional writers for new and imaginative stories. Much to our surprise and delight, these  stories became an important part of our website and even a destination for some customers.

Our latest  customer satisfaction survey had several requests for new stories and favorable comments on what we already have. Based on our experience, so far and the favorable comments, we have decided to have our new stories written by Brian “Fox” Ellis a well known writer and storyteller from Illinois. Brian Ellis has been collecting and telling stories for more than 25 years. He speaks and performs in such diverse  venues as riverboats, science conferences, schools churches and libraries. He performs several one man storytelling “shows” as Charles Darwin, Walt Whitman, John James Audubon and relates stories of Abraham Lincoln.

Brian Ellis has written ten books including the award winning childrens picture book The Web at Dragonfly Pond. Christmas Night Inc  has recently added Kneeling Santa Claus at the Manger and Who is Welcome at His House by Brian “Fox” Ellis. Please visit him on his website www.foxtalesint.com

We had some terrific ideas and comments from our second customer satisfaction survey. I will list some with our reply and action.

” I would like to hear of any special  offers on the Nativity figures I ordered”  We are always trying to find new items and better prices  for you. We do not normally discount our more popular sets as we usually sell out, but we may need to balance our stock from time to time and that may present an opportunity. We have sourced some product on direct import which has resulted in significantly lower prices for our Life Size Plus Nativity.

“I wish we could get more animals of the same scale for our Nativity Set. Do you sell these separately or as an animal set?” We have added Camels to more of our sets and we are creating “animal sets” in addition to the animals we sell individually.

” More stories!” If you visit the Stories section of our website, you will see that we have added two more wonderful stories from Brian ” Fox” Ellis the acclaimed author of Fox Tales International . We have a story about “Who is Welcome in His House?” and “Kneeling Santa at the Manger” (more below). Two more stories by Brian Ellis will be added shortly.

“Don, remember that you were going to check on a large Kneeling Santa for me” We get a number of requests for special and unique Christmas items. We offer a several small versions of Santa Claus kneeling at the crib of the baby Jesus, but we have had requests for a life size version. Unfortunately, the economics of mold production and volume manufacturing rule out this  large and expensive figure with limited appeal. We will keep looking, so please do ask for these special items.

” I am more interested in high quality, commercial grade decorations.” You may have noticed that we are offering more large, commercial style figures, particularly focused on Toy Soldiers, Nutcrackers, Santas and Snowmen. We have added to our array of larger outdoor Nativity sets and we replaced the “Made in China” Nativity Stables with our own design “Made in USA” of American white pine.

More next post.

“It’s funny to be talking about Christmas in April” said the nice lady from a small town in Virginia, “but I know if I don’t get started planning our fund raising, it will never happen” She and her congregation at a very small church have set their sights on a fabulous Nativity set made by Fontanini, the Italian manufacturer of the world’s most artistically beautiful ( and often, most expensive) Nativity figures and scenes from three inches to full life size.

She wanted to do something beyond the usual church bake sale, raffle, bingo, silent auction or fund raiser and hit upon what she called “Christmas in July”. As she explained it they were going to have a Christmas  party with a tree and presents, except that the presents would be pictures of the individual Nativity figures. Members of the congregation will be able to donate to the church Nativity fund for whichever figure they choose.

To help her with this, we provided full color pictures of each of the fifteen beautiful Nativity figures, including the Holy Family, three Kings, Gabriel, Ox, Donkey, Camel, two Angels, two sheep, a Stable and, last but not least. a bagpiper! The Italians are very creative and inclusive when creating their Nativity sets.

Our pictures, each one with a cost, will be placed on their tree, and church members can note the figure and make their commitment toward the purchase. We are happy to help and we are also happy to pass on a very good fund raising idea.