Fine-tuning the Manger Scene:
The little figures are painted wood. The pottery palm trees were incorporated by my daughter at a later date (she also at some point during her childhood added the aluminum-foil star at the peak of the red manger roof). The palm trees had been salt & pepper shakers in their previous life, gifts from a friend who could never have foreseen how significant they would become, decommissioned as tableware and imbedded in family holiday ritual. Which yearly (as shown) proves its vitality by enlisting fresh recruits.