Christmas Cribs - Specialist Profile - House & Garden Magazine - Nativity Sets

If, like Scrooge, you feel that Christmas descends annually into humbug, then Christmas Cribs, run by Joan and David Kottler, will come as a relief. Thirty years ago, Joan, the mother of four small children, had a similarly appalled reaction to the array of garish plastic and ornate pottery Nativity scenes in the shops. Feeling strongly that the Christmas story should be one of enchantment, she decided to make her own set of figures, each year adding variations and improvements which met with increased appreciation from children and adults alike. Some years later, David suggested that Joan make up extra sets - they were sold out long before Christmas, and Christmas Cribs became a family enterprise. Today the Kottlers have a mailing list of around 6,000 customers, and each August they send out over 5000 brochures. The couple work from home, a farmhouse in Northamptonshire. Its layout is ideal. The traditional barn at one end of the house acts as the main workroom, while an outbuilding provides David with his workshop.

Filed away in the barn are letters of appreciation from customers as varied as Buckingham Palace and primary schools. In the workshop, David makes the animals from various woods - sycamore for the lambs, oak for the stables and crib and iroko for the oxen. The animals are rough-shaped, repeatedly sanded and then polished. Joan makes all the human figures herself, ensuring that the moulded fabrics with which they are clothed have the 'right amount of movement and life'. An entire crib set (of stable, Mary, Joseph, animals, shepherds, three kings and camels) costs around £300, but pieces may be bought individually , from £6.50 and many people prefer to build up their set year by year: 'One year they will buy kings and another year the camels,' says Joan. 'We enjoy getting to know our customers. We don't think of our cribs as collectors' items; we think of them as family pieces' - a nice distinction that sums up the charm of this enterprise.