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DIY Nativity Workshop
Tuesdays, December 2 and 9th, 6pm-8pm
On a cold winter’s night in 2014, a lowly Christian (and future co-facilitator of this workshop) who didn’t own a “real” Nativity set cobbled one together out of action figures and pinecones with googly eyes. Thus, the D.I.Y. Nativity was born as a cherished annual tradition.
Join Haven Green of Wisdom Ways Center for Spirituality and Owen Marciano of @nonnaterra for this two-part, online offering that combines playfulness with the unexpectedly profound.
In Part One, we’ll re-tell the Christmas story while asking about the meaning it holds for each of us today. What makes it compelling in 2025? Who are the prophets and Wise Ones among us? Where is someone laboring to bring Peace into our world, and what kind of shelter might we offer them? What does it feel to imagine the scene in a nontraditional way?
We’ll also contemplate how handmade and repurposed objects can become powerful symbols imbued with sacred meaning – perhaps more so than any consumer product purchased off the shelf.
During our time together, you’ll be invited to begin assembling your own unique Nativity scene using materials you have at home.
Part Two is an optional gathering to show-and-tell about our creations. Will yours be representative or abstract? A shoebox diorama or a sprawling tableau? What about this exercise felt liberating, surprising, or healing? What does your D.I.Y. Nativity highlight in the Christmas story?
Suggested materials: natural objects, animal-shaped knickknacks, photos of ancestors, toy figurines, recyclables, clay, collage materials and glue, or any other medium that brings you joy and a sense of possibility.
Need to ask a question before signing up? Please email Haven Green at hgreen@accolamn.org.
Leader Bios:
Haven Green is the Director of Wisdom Ways Center for Spirituality and an ordained Christian minister. Prior to leading programming for folks from diverse spiritual traditions in the wider community, they delighted in leading all-ages faith formation in progressive Christian churches. In their creative rituals, group facilitation, and retreat leadership, they ask open-ended questions that invite individual meaning-making and encourage personal agency.
Owen Marciano is a queer, transmasculine, disabled artist, and a Sicilian-American settler on Dakota and Anishinaabe land, in so-called Minneapolis, MN. Owen is attentive to the ways his Sicilian and southern Italian ancestors created spiritual and emotional protection together, particularly through folk art & the expression of earth-based spiritual traditions. Owen is engaged in a spiritually-centered, multidisciplinary art practice in tandem with a divination practice as a Tarot reader under the name Nonna Terra. Socials: FB & IG & BlueSky
Tuesdays, December 2 and 9th, 6pm-8pm
On a cold winter’s night in 2014, a lowly Christian (and future co-facilitator of this workshop) who didn’t own a “real” Nativity set cobbled one together out of action figures and pinecones with googly eyes. Thus, the D.I.Y. Nativity was born as a cherished annual tradition.
Join Haven Green of Wisdom Ways Center for Spirituality and Owen Marciano of @nonnaterra for this two-part, online offering that combines playfulness with the unexpectedly profound.
In Part One, we’ll re-tell the Christmas story while asking about the meaning it holds for each of us today. What makes it compelling in 2025? Who are the prophets and Wise Ones among us? Where is someone laboring to bring Peace into our world, and what kind of shelter might we offer them? What does it feel to imagine the scene in a nontraditional way?
We’ll also contemplate how handmade and repurposed objects can become powerful symbols imbued with sacred meaning – perhaps more so than any consumer product purchased off the shelf.
During our time together, you’ll be invited to begin assembling your own unique Nativity scene using materials you have at home.
Part Two is an optional gathering to show-and-tell about our creations. Will yours be representative or abstract? A shoebox diorama or a sprawling tableau? What about this exercise felt liberating, surprising, or healing? What does your D.I.Y. Nativity highlight in the Christmas story?
Suggested materials: natural objects, animal-shaped knickknacks, photos of ancestors, toy figurines, recyclables, clay, collage materials and glue, or any other medium that brings you joy and a sense of possibility.
Need to ask a question before signing up? Please email Haven Green at hgreen@accolamn.org.
Leader Bios:
Haven Green is the Director of Wisdom Ways Center for Spirituality and an ordained Christian minister. Prior to leading programming for folks from diverse spiritual traditions in the wider community, they delighted in leading all-ages faith formation in progressive Christian churches. In their creative rituals, group facilitation, and retreat leadership, they ask open-ended questions that invite individual meaning-making and encourage personal agency.
Owen Marciano is a queer, transmasculine, disabled artist, and a Sicilian-American settler on Dakota and Anishinaabe land, in so-called Minneapolis, MN. Owen is attentive to the ways his Sicilian and southern Italian ancestors created spiritual and emotional protection together, particularly through folk art & the expression of earth-based spiritual traditions. Owen is engaged in a spiritually-centered, multidisciplinary art practice in tandem with a divination practice as a Tarot reader under the name Nonna Terra. Socials: FB & IG & BlueSky