I’ve shared these two before, but it is St Nicholas’ day. That isn’t really a thing in my tradition, except insofar as to grump (quietly) about how everyone else is getting Father Christmas wrong: but he’s just familiar enough in his red and white, and just saintly enough with his crook and mitre, to belong there. Maybe I’ll get the angel an umbrella. The nativity scene and the Magi will show up later.
Of course, this inevitably raises questions about how to render other seasonal saints in Playmobil. Saint Lucia, with candles on her head and her eyes on a plate? There are various monks out there, who’d do as St John of the Cross, and young men who could be St John the Evangelist or St Stephen. Perhaps we’d better stop there. Collecting Playmobil babies to play the Holy Innocents would feel distinctly, if illogically, off: why should I baulk at one plastic martyrdom but not another? (But couldn’t I get an Arius for St Nick to clobber?)
Usually these two would be up on top of the piano, but I don’t trust the cat (currently attacking a scrap of red and white brushed cotton plaid) with them, so they’re sheltering on the bookcase. They don’t really have a story. I just wanted to buy a Playmobil St Nicholas.
Kathleen Jowitt 