“M. DIDDY”

Martha Stewart Is Selling Replicas of the Nativity Set She Made in Prison


Martha Stewart and her nativity set
Courtesy of @marthastewart

If you’re still on the hunt for a Christmas present or two, well, Martha Stewart has you covered. As showcased in her latest TikTok, the 80-year-old mogul is selling ceramic nativity sets that come with a side of “street cred.” They’re exact replicas of the set she’s displayed each Christmas since 2005, aka the year she got out of prison for lying about stock sales. Speaking of prison: that’s exactly where she made the original set. (Leave it to Stewart—apparently known to inmates as “M. Diddy”—to track down a penal institution that offers pottery classes.)

“They’re all inspired by—guess what?,” Stewart, who is Catholic, said of the 14 ceramic pieces. “The set that I made when I was confined.” She placed an extra emphasis on that last word, showing off the baby Jesus figurine she crafted while “away at camp.” Then, she flipped it over to offer proof of its origins. “I still have my [inmate] number on the bottom!,” Stewart exclaimed. (It’s unclear if the $149 replicas are exact enough to include that detail.)

The nativity set isn’t Stewart’s only souvenir from “Yale,” to use her preferred euphemism for the Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia. Last year, in an interview with People, she revealed that she still has the crocheted poncho she wore on her way out. “This was made by a friend of mine, a wonderful lady,” she said at the time. “The yarn came from the commissary. The night before I left, she handed me this—not wrapped, because there is no wrapping paper—and she said, ‘Wear it in good health.’” Quippy as ever, she added, “We’ll try to get the pattern from her.”