Chris Schweizer’s Papercraft Nativity Scene Is The Perfect, Extremely Complicated Addition To Your Christmas

Along with the Christmas tree and strings of lights, the nativity scene is one of the classic Christmas decorations, but to be honest, they can be a little boring. I myself have tried to spice things up in the past by removing the usual figures and replacing them with GI Joes and Lego Batman pieces, but it's just not the same, which is why I'm glad that cartoonist Chris Schweizer has stepped up to save Christmas with his amazing papercraft Nativity Scene.

Not only is it beautifully drawn and ready to print out and assemble as a pay-what-you-want PDF download, but it's also exhaustively researched, with almost 40 figures drawn from both Biblical and non-canonical sources --- making it one of the few Nativity scenes you're likely to see that includes both the Caganer and a blazing-eyed host of angels with six wings and skin like fire.

The Nativity includes all the familiar figures that you might expect, of course; Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men, shepherds, and Baby Jesus Himself. The other figures gathered to witness the event include figures like La Befana, drawn from regional folklore, and obscure pieces of the Infancy Gospels, like the cherry tree that bent down to offer Mary some of its fruit when it was out of reach.

If you're a little confused by the more obscure characters --- or if you just want to know why Schweizer chose to draw them in a particular way, or what sources he's looking to for inspiration --- he's posting daily commentary for almost every figure at his Tumblr in days leading up to Christmas, and it's well worth a read.

Incidentally, I did try to get him to add Ben Grimm and Ghost Rider, since they appeared at a Nativity in the classic Marvel Two-In-One #8 from 1975, but alas, it turned out that it was all an illusion. Still, I think we can all agree that with the number of people in attendance already, they probably won't be missed.