A Well Informed Guide to Needlepoint Nativity Sets

Nativity sets? You’re thinking it’s the summer, who's thinking of Christmas now?! Needlepointers are.

If you want the next camel, Wise Man or Shepard ready for Advent(December), or if you want the next Christmas Stocking (Christmas stockings will be getting their own post) for Christmas Eve, well, you have hard stop coming up on September 1 and October 1.

Stitching your needlepoint is only half the job. When you’re done it’s time for the “finishers”, the people who will take and make it into a stocking, ornament or stand-up figure.

So this time of year I’m frantically trying to finish my Christmas stitching.

I first learned to needlepoint in high school, but didn’t really finish any of the projects I started. There were things like parties and boys, school and other teenager stuff that got in the way.

Later, when our children were very young I made a couple pillows, but frankly, in those days needlepoint was usually outside of my financial or time budget. To the extent I had spare time, not much, I knitted (Stay tuned will get its own post).

In 2001 I opened a knitting and needlepoint store here in town. That’s when I really started needlepointing.

One of the most important parts of running a crafting store is making a sample — people are very visual. They have a hard time looking at a canvas and seeing a finished Mary and Joseph.

I stitched my first Nativity scene as a sample for my personal use, but also for the store.

I retired from the store several years ago — owning a retail store is one of the most demanding jobs you can have —but I’ve been a voracious stitcher ever since.

Take a look at the picture below. This is my first Nativity Set.

Yes, this is that set which I finished about 20 years ago. It’s Nativity Set by Liz Goodrick-Dillon available here or at your local needlepoint store. If you look closely, it’s completely in basketweave(the simplest basic stitch), and also stitched primarily in a basic needlepoint wool. It doesn’t use any fancy threads, embellishments or fancy stitches. I was very much a beginner when I stitched this. Every Christmas, we bring this set out of storage, place it on the living room sideboard and it is an important part of the Christmas festival at our house.

You never know what traditions your children absorb or what they’ll want to continue. In 2012, when our oldest daughter was finishing college, I asked her if she wanted her own set and she did. Her set is from Rebecca Woods.

What didn’t occur to me in 2012, Is that I would have children graduating in 2014 and 2016 who would also want their own sets. Here they are:

My older son’s is from The Silver Needle. Please disregard the seasonally inappropriate window air conditioner in his apartment-it doesn’t exactly say the Plains outside of Bethlehem, does it?

Here is my younger daughter’s which is also designed by Rebecca Woods

You can see looking at these newer sets that my stitching has evolved. I’ve gotten more adventurous. I’m using different and fancier threads, there are now embellishments.

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t wake up one morning and become a super needlepointer. I’ve learned a lot and I’ve read a lot.

My favorite book is The Needlepoint Book by Jo Ippolito Christianson. I have the original and the updated version. I keep one in the Adirondacks. It’s available on Amazon or used at ABE Books.

Whether you’re a needlepointing newbie or a ninja, the thing to remember is to not be afraid to try. If you don't like how something looks, be willing to rip out the threads and start over. It’s supposed to be fun. And, no one is grading you on it. Be happy, stitch away and don’t quit.

Speaking of which, I can’t quit because I have a younger son who finished college in 2021. I’m now working his set - my final set until I have grandchildren and this is the set so far: