Our Story
Bethlehem Handicrafts is the first olive wood store in the USA with an online market that ships worldwide, a workshop in Bethlehem, and an operator of Christian pilgrimages. 🌳
To the East of the Church of the Nativity is a small road that gently goes down to the fields of Boaz. It was here that the Shepherds were told by Angel Gabriel that the Prince of Peace had been born unto the world in a field along the path that the Three Wise Men had taken both into Bethlehem and out of it.
It is also here that the modern Christian community of Beit Sahour exists; the largest Christian village in the Holy Land where they planted their olive trees and slowly built their homes out of hand-hewn stone.
Over time, many families including our family, the Bannoura family, learned to beautifully hand carve religious artifacts from olive wood, as Christian pilgrims came to the Holy Land in greater numbers and desired items to remember their pilgrimage with.
This skill has been improved upon and passed down from father to son for many generations in our family with each generation adding new stylistic ideas and new means to improve the crafting until we reached where we are now; masterly finesse.
The Bannoura Family carving in our workshop in Bethlehem, Palestine
We are proud to be considered part of the living Christian heritage of the Holy Land which is why we built the website. Bethlehem Handicrafts, that operates as an online market for uniquely hand carved olive wood products featuring over 800 products quality, handcrafts olive wood products made in the foothills of Bethlehem by Christian artisans.
Through visiting BethlehemHandicrafts.com, you can also plan your next pilgrimage to the Holy Land and more! Our tourism operations and management in the Holy Land provides Christians a truly sacred and significant pilgrimage experience in the Holy Land!
After all of those years and through hard work and your support, we reached a new milestone! We recently opened the first olive wood store in the USA! It features almost all of the products that are available on our website. If you want to learn more about the Holy Land or just take a look at our intricately carved statues, please don’t hesitate to come and visit us at our olive wood store where you’ll be greeted by our family members themselves! 🙏
