Mr. Chris Reeves, the school handyman, laminated the desks together and carved out the figures using a jigsaw. It took him two months to carve out all the characters in the Christmas story and on average each figure was carved from two desks each. Mr. Reeves who is now 54 years old was taught basic carpentry years ago but had never done something like this before.

He says that he remembered that there were some 1960´s teak desks lying around after the school refurbished the science department. He felt that the wood was too good to waste and hence decided to put them to some good use. The figures will now be displayed in the school foyer at Nicholas Breakspear School in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

Head of the religious education department, Ella McCarthy says the scene is absolutely amazing and she had never seen something like this before. She is of the opinion that Mr. Reeves is really gifted and did a remarkable job by using the old desks. Her pupils love the scene.

The flower slowly emerged from the remnants of the mountainside.  According to the forest rangers of the Meilan village, Jinfeng town, the stone flower was discovered by an elderly villager about a month ago when he was collecting firewood deep in the forest.

The village head Ran Zaizhong believes that the ‘stone flower’ is a gift from nature and reveals that the township officials will protect the ‘stone flower’ and develop the location as a scenic local attraction. The villagers have now built a path through the woods so that people can easily visit the location.

Geologist Dr. Meng Youyan, after studying pictures of the ‘stone flower’ said the so-called petals are in fact 300 million-year-old chert nodules.