 | | | Young Jennifer with her family's nativity scene. | | | | I love hearing from you.
But Jennifer Hooton's touching letter was also accompanied by a special crèche — the Magi Nativity — for you to download.
"I would like to challenge everyone in the Creche Guild," Jennifer writes, "to make and distribute as many paper crèches (ornativities) to all of our family, friends, and acquaintances aspossible!"
"We need to let everyone we come in contactwith experience the warmth, joy, and simple peace that accompanies apaper creche.
"For paper crèche lovers like myself, it is our special way of keepingthe true meaning of Christmas alive and in the hearts of the world.
"I received my first paper creche when I was ten," she wrote then, "andevery year I display it at Christmas. It reminds me of days gone by,when life was simpler, and Christmas less commercialized.
"Best Wishes for the Happiest of Christmases and the Best New Year Ever!"
— Jennifer
This isn't the first time Jennifer Hooton surprised us with a beautiful nativity for Christmas.We were delighted to hear from Jennifer last year, when she shared her Vintage 1940 Crèche with us.
 | | | Yellow lines indicate cuts, red and blue folds. | | | | Jennifer's Magi Crèche
Jennifer's new offering to crèche enthusiasts everywhere is a bright, single-piece nativity scene.
With two cuts and six folds, it creates what you might call a pentaptych (it's rather fun using a Greek word now and then!), a fold-out nativity, that is, with five panels.
The center panel depicts a brightly-lit manger with the Star of Bethlehem on the straw roof.
The ox and the ass look on from their enclosure on the right, and to
the left, Mary lifts her hands in joy of her newborn Son.
Joseph kneels, as does a third Magi who pays tribute to the Newborn King by taking off his own crown.On two smaller panels adjacent to the manger, two tiny cherubs hover above.And on the two remaining panels, two standing Magi offer their gifts.
Printing, cutting, and folding
Our PDF—courtesy of Jennifer Hooton—contains a 150-dpi, 7.75" wideimage. Print it on heavier paper stock, or of a paper type to give you the bestresults.
Before cutting out your crèche, take a look at the folding and cutting diagram, above, or the larger one you'll see by clicking on the third thumbnail, top of page.
Using a ruler and a dull instrument, lightly score along the fouryellow lines. (If you are using a dull X-acto knife to do this, makesure that you don't cut through the paper!) I found that a letteropener works nicely, as does a sewing toothed wheel.Afterscoring lines A, B, C, D, E,& F, cut along the two yellow lines—infront of each standing Magi—being careful as you do so.
Now, fold along each of the two red lines with a square away fromyou, and the other four blue lines towards you, being careful not to bend the thetwo bottom tabs that support each standing Magi. That's it! Next time, time yourself, from start to finish. You'll be pleasantly surprised.
Thank you, Jennifer, for a lovely gift, from all of us... |
Jennifer Hooton Free Download 
