Christmas Nativity

thingiverse

Finding a nativity scene to print was a challenge. I was surprised how few options there were. I modeled the main scenery from a set my wife bought in Israel 20 years ago. I love the non-traditional take on the Bethlehem scene. The main scene and palm leaves were printed in PLA on a Monoprice Maker Select V2.1. The figures were printed on a Sparkmaker SLA printer. The entire Nativity scene can fit into the palm of a hand. That being said, it should scale very well if printing a larger version is desired. The palm leaves are in one large file with all 20 leaves in their respective sizes. If just one leaf is needed, resize the original files from Curufin by 37%. I used a bowl of hot water to shape the palm leaves and then glued them to the tree - the largest leaves on the bottom, then next size in the middle, and finally the 4 smallest leaves on the top. They fit pretty well so glue isn't necessary depending on how you plan to store it afterward. I have a nice little box that fits the entire nativity scene for storage after Christmas. Shaping the leaves really is necessary IMHO. I took a picture without shaping them and well...looks a little silly if you ask me. I provided a few photos different leaf arrangements. I made multiple of these for gifts and each tree is unique. Please let me know if you'd like to see any changes or have suggestions.