Carved from carefully selected mediterranean olive wood and spalted beech, sourced just up the road, this nativity set is designed to fit perfectly in small hands now and be treasured by those same hands when they are engraved with age and experience.
Shop the Nativity SetBy the mid-1500’s, simple nativity sets began to appear in wealthy homes and, within 200 years, they had become a Christmas feature in ordinary homes too.
Techniques, materials and styles have evolved over time but, behind them all, the story of the the miraculous birth of the Saviour of the world is as simple as it ever was:The King of the universe loved us so much that he laid aside his glory and status, coming to us as a helpless baby, with a mission to save us all.
Our set mirrors that same humility and simplicity with its simple shapes, rounded edges and minimal detail. The natural beauty of the wood does not need help from brightly coloured paints, gold leaf or lacquer.
It’s the story it represents that makes this nativity set so beautiful.
A Purchase You Won't Regret
Handcrafted in
North Yorkshire
Locally Sourced
Spalted Beech
Child Safe
Non Toxic
Made to Order
7-Day Turnaround
Easy, Secure
Checkout
30-Day
Free Returns
Most nativity sets are just for looking at. This one looks great on a mantelpiece or Christmas table, too, but it is made for playing with.
The tactile, chunky, smooth-sanded figures are sized perfectly for little hands to pick up and play with.
There's nothing to break, no fiddly pieces to lose — just a set sturdy enough to survive your child's first steps into the world of imaginative play.
Children will build their own stories around these figures long before they understand the true story behind them. That's by design. Open-ended, screen-free play is how the nativity becomes theirs - not just something to be careful around.
Every figure in the set is carved with just enough detail to tell you who it is. A fold in the robe, the suggestion of a face turned toward the manger, a small variation in the shape of each king's crown, these are deliberate choices, and so is everything we leave out. A fully detailed face, with its own expression already decided, doesn't leave anywhere for a child's imagination to go. It's finished before they've even picked it up.
Give a child a figure that's recognisably Joseph but whose expression isn't locked in, and they'll decide for themselves whether he's worried, or relieved, or quietly proud, and that decision can change every time they play.
Too much detail and a toy becomes something to look at rather than something to think with. Too little, and there's nothing to hang a story on. Somewhere in between is where the imaginative play happens, and that's the gap we're carving for.
The nativity set is new, so it has no reviews yet.
These are verified reviews of our Empty Tomb | Resurrection Scene – Hand-made Wooden Easter Display | Made in the UK. From the same workshop, made by the same hands in the same way.
We will publish nativity set reviews here as soon as we have them.
“I am thrilled with this wooden Resurrection Scene. It is beautifully made and finished. Very high quality and well worth the price. It will help us to tell the Easter story to our little grandchildren who will, no doubt, enjoy handling it too!”
“We love our Easter scene. It’s so original and a great piece to have in the home at Easter time. The wood is beautiful and we love that it is a locally crafted.”
Beauty forged through hardship
No two sets are quite alike - and that's the point. Each figure is shaped from Spalted Beech, a wood prized for the dark, marbled lines and colour variations left behind by a natural fungal process as the timber slowly seasons. The result is a one-of-a-kind grain pattern running through every shepherd, every donkey, every building - so the set you unwrap is totally unique to you.
The timber is harvested from wind-felled and end-of-life trees here in North Yorkshire, and every piece is shaped, and finished by hand, in our workshop. No mass production, no Chinese imports, no gaudy paint jobs, just slow, deliberate craft, a love of wood and respect for the Christmas story.
The stable, its roof and the baby Jesus are carved from olive wood rather than spalted beech.
Olive trees are native to the Holy Land, and the young Jesus would almost certainly have used their wood in his work as a carpenter. There are still olive trees alive today that were growing at the time of Jesus' birth.
That same endurance is written into the woodgrain itself. Olive wood grows slowly, under stress, in dry and rocky ground, and what it gives back is some of the most dramatically figured timber you can find. Gorgeous, swirling patterns of pale gold and rich brown are proof that beauty can be born out of hardship.
Hand-sanded and oiled, olive wood takes on a smooth, almost silken feel under your fingers, dense and cool to the touch in a way few other woods can match. It is a fitting choice for the stable where a servant king was born.
Screen time can never replicate the closeness a child feels, curled up against you, looking at the same page, waiting to see what happens next. Reading together, even for ten minutes a day, gives children something electronic devices are designed specifically not to give them - a slower pace, a real voice and a reason to give their full attention.
It's also great for their development, building vocabulary and concentration in ways that passive screen time can’t. Even more importantly, it tells the children in your life that this time is theirs.That closeness deepens even further when you build the story together rather than just read reading it aloud. A tale where your child gets to choose the shepherd's name or invent the joke the innkeeper tells, stops being a story and becomes a family tradition with their fingerprints all over it. No two families will ever tell quite the same version, and that's what makes it so special.You can base your story building on the advent passages from the Bible, an advent book or our own “Letters From Gaius” (See below)Acting out the story, with the figures from our nativity sets, brings their imagination into the real world where they can touch and feel it.Placing the Angel at Joseph's door or walking the wise men up to Herod's gate creates a rich and peaceful world in their imaginations where no one is trying to stress or control them. The stories will evolve and adapt each advent but the joy and connection will be the same every time.Start with the Foundation Set and add additional sets each year, as your family grows
or your story-telling appetite increases — or buy them all at once.
*The figures of Mary and Joseph, shown in the Mary's House and Joseph's Workshop sets, come with the foundation set
and are shown here for illustration purposes only.
Every piece is crafted and hand-finished in North Yorkshire from locally sourced spalted beech and carefully selected olive wood. Use the tabs below to view the contents of each set.
Click any piece to go to its product page.
7 pieces — the heart of the nativity scene. Everything you need to tell the story.
Stable Building
110mm × 110mm
Stable Roof
110mm × 41mm
Baby Jesus
55mm × 36mm
Manger
62mm × 42mm
Mary
43mm × 91mm
Joseph
32mm × 91mm
Donkey
72mm × 62mm
Colours and grain patterns will vary. All dimensions represent maximum size. All pieces are 18mm thick.
5 pieces — the shepherds, their flock and the angel who brought them the news.
Angel
117mm × 77mm
Shepherd 1
40mm × 70mm
Shepherd 2
40mm × 70mm
Sheep 1
68mm × 42mm
Sheep 2
68mm × 42mm
Colours and grain patterns will vary. All dimensions represent maximum size. All pieces are 18mm thick.
4 pieces — three kings and their faithful camel, following the star from the East.
Colours and grain patterns will vary. All dimensions represent maximum size. All pieces are 18mm thick.
4 pieces — where the angel found Mary and the story of Christmas began.
Main Building
110mm × 55mm
Main Building Roof
110mm × 41mm
Tower
55mm × 110mm
Tower Roof
55mm × 21mm
Colours and grain patterns will vary. All dimensions represent maximum size. All pieces are 18mm thick
4 pieces — the carpenter's workshop where Jesus grew up.
Main Building
110mm × 55mm
Main Building Roof
110mm × 35mm
Tower
55mm × 110mm
Tower Roof
55mm × 21mm
Colours and grain patterns will vary. All dimensions represent maximum size. All pieces are 18mm thick
8 pieces — the palace itself, in all its architectural splendour. Roman Soldiers and Horse are in their own tab.
King Herod
47mm × 100mm
Palace Door
55mm × 110mm
Palace Door Roof Dome
55mm × 21mm
Palace Door Filler Block
55mm × 110mm
Palace Door Window Block 1
55mm × 110mm
Palace Door Window Block 2
55mm × 110mm
Palace Roof Crenellation
168mm × 25mm
Palace Roof Crenellation Dome
55mm × 21mm
Colours and grain patterns will vary. All dimensions represent maximum size. All pieces are 18mm thick
4 pieces — Herod's guards, with horse and the Innkeeper.
Colours and grain patterns will vary. All dimensions represent maximum size. All pieces are 18mm thick
1 piece — the badly behaved cat from Letters from Gaius, now available as a companion figure for your nativity scene.
Quite possibly the worst-behaved cat in Jerusalem. Illustrated here in the only pose he would agree to.
Figure is 18mm thick.
I personally oversee the shaping and finishing of every one of these, in our workshop in North Yorkshire. We guarantee that all orders placed by 6th December will be despatched in time for Christmas delivery.
We will continue to ship orders placed after that time until 18th December but cannot guarantee Christmas delivery.
If you are not happy with your set, for any reason, send it back within 21 days, free of charge. I'll even cover the return postage. No forms, no questions. Just email help@wearefairtrade.com and put “Nativity Return” in the subject line.
We will email you back with a free returns label
Mark Buchanan
We Are Fair Trade Ltd
Handcrafted in North Yorkshire · 7-day turnaround · Free 21-day returns
