The Christmas Nativity Scene Symbol Analysis

Feeling useless and humiliated, the narrator attempts to make himself useful by retrieving the Christmas decorations from the attic. However, he falters on the ladder, dropping the box that contains Claire’s childhood nativity set. Inspecting the damage, he realizes that all the nativity figurines have shattered, with the exception of the “baby Jesus.” On the one hand, the act of breaking his wife’s decorations symbolizes how fragile their relationship is at the moment. On the other hand, the fact that the figurine of Jesus—the Savior—survived suggests that there might be hope for them to salvage their marriage. When the narrator later apologizes to his wife for the breakage, she just laughs, saying “That's OK. It was made in the Philippines. Funny how everything except the Jesus broke.” Claire’s reference to cheap goods made in the Philippines suggests that her nativity set is somehow not worthy of evoking nostalgia, simply because it was mass-produced. Kennedy highlights the wasteful nature of Western capitalism when depicting how, despite having the set since she was a child, Claire does not attach value to it because she sees it as disposable and easily replaceable. Kennedy complicates her portrayal of modern capitalism, however, when Evie saves the day by creating a new nativity scene using her plastic dolls and toys. Here, the image of the plastic nativity scene demonstrates how mass-produced goods can have sentimental value, and it thus provides a realistic portrayal of modernity and contemporary family values.