Trees & olive trees

Scale first, or nothing

This is the most common mistake in nativity scenery, even more common than houses that are too tall: trees built to true scale make the scenery look wrong.

Do the math once. A 3-inch (7 cm) figure stands for a man about 5 feet 9 inches tall, so the scale is roughly 1:24. A full-grown 20-foot olive tree would be about 10 inches tall. A 50-foot cypress would be 24 inches. In other words, a tree to scale won’t fit in a tabletop nativity, and if it did, it would overwhelm everything.

Do what every theater set designer does: cheat, but in the right direction. Make the trees in front clearly smaller than scale (5 to 6 inches for an olive tree) and the ones in back smaller still. Then make up for it with a great trunk instead of more height. A squat, gnarled 5-inch olive tree looks right. A skinny 10-inch one looks like a leek.

The olive tree, the tree of the Provençal crèche

Nothing says Provence like an olive tree. It’s also the hardest tree to get right, because it’s all in the trunk.

The trunk. An olive tree doesn’t have a straight trunk. It’s short, thick, twisted and hollow, often split so wide you can see through it. The best material is a heather root or a piece of dry grapevine, which already has that twist. If you can’t find either, twist some wire together, cover it with air-dry clay and carve grooves into it with a pointed tool before it dries. A straight trunk will never look like an olive tree, no matter how well you paint it.

The color. Gray, not brown. The bark of an old olive tree is a silvery gray, with dark green in the hollows and almost white patches where it’s exposed. Paint it medium gray, run a very thin brown wash into the hollows, then dry-brush a very light gray on the raised parts.

The foliage. This is how you spot a good olive tree. The leaves are small, narrow, gray-green on top and silver underneath, and the whole tree looks light, almost see-through. Use fine flock, never bright green, and above all don’t fill it in. You should see the sky through the branches. A solid olive tree just looks like a shrub.

Cypress, pine, almond

With three more trees, you’ve covered the whole Provençal landscape.

The cypress is the easiest and most useful: tall, narrow and very dark green, shaped like a flame. It breaks up the flat lines of the scenery and marks the entrance to a farmhouse or a cemetery. Make it from a cone of floral foam covered with dark flock, or just a trimmed sprig of arborvitae. Use two or three, and don’t space them evenly in a row.

The umbrella pine is the opposite: a tall, bare, slightly leaning trunk with a flat crown on top like a hat. It instantly says “seaside.” No low branches.

The almond tree in bloom is the only flowering tree in the nativity, and that’s on purpose. In Provence it blooms in February, well after Christmas. People include it anyway, as a sign of the spring to come. Use a thin frame with no leaves, then glue on tiny white and pale pink dots one by one. It takes patience, and it shows.

Making a tree in two stages

Whatever the tree, the method is the same: first the frame, then the foliage.

The frame. Use a forked twig, a heather root, or three wires twisted together and spread apart at the top. The rule: it should taper as it rises and branch out several times. A trunk that’s the same thickness all the way up gives away the wire right away.

The foliage. Brush glue on the branch tips, sprinkle on flock or crushed moss, and tap off the extra. Two light coats beat one thick one: a dark one first, then a lighter one on top only, as if the sun were hitting it.

For moss, preserved lichen and low plants, see the moss and plants page. One tip applies here too: fresh moss you pick outdoors will turn moldy in your storage box by summer.

Where to plant them

Never in the middle. A tree in the center cuts the scene in two. Put trees at the sides, in front to frame the scene, or behind the houses to close off the back.

In odd numbers and never in a row. Three olive trees in an uneven triangle look better than four in a line. It’s a classic rule of garden design, and it works here too.

With the base hidden. A tree just sitting on the ground looks fake. Hide its base behind a bush, a tuft of moss or a stone, and it looks planted. It takes three seconds, and it’s what makes it look like a landscape instead of a model.

Frequently asked questions