The Nativity Collectors

Sharing a world of cultures

Linda Beyea unwraps baby Jesus from a piece of purple tissue paper and gently places the fragile clay figure on the coffee table. Her husband, Francis, helps unpack the other pieces of the Nativity set made in Guadalajara, Mexico.

“One of the kings has lost an arm,” says Francis, lifting the broken figure from a cardboard box.

“Well then, we won’t put it out this year,” Linda replies. “We don’t want someone to think they broke it.”

Each December the couple climbs into their attic to retrieve a dozen large cardboard boxes, brimming with more than 100 Nativity sets from around the world. They arrange the colorful scenes throughout their home in Phillipsburg, N.J., a community of 15,166, and share them with the congregation at Westminster Presbyterian Church where Francis is pastor.

“It’s fun,” Francis says. “We like getting these out; it’s like unwrapping treasures.”

The Beyeas bought their first Nativity, an East German set, from a gift shop in Princeton, N.J., in 1972. Its moving parts, set in motion by the heat of six candles, caught Linda’s attention—and Francis, who was attending Princeton Theological Seminary at the time, thought the purchase—though expensive—would be a great remembrance of the couple’s first Christmas together.

Over the years, their enthusiasm and their collection have grown. “It’s like any hobby,” says Linda, assistant superintendent of schools in nearby Flemington (pop. 4,200). “Once you have an eye for something, you spot it no matter where you go.”

The couple’s collection is beautiful in its diversity: a soap stone set from India; ebony figures from Tanzania; a bamboo set from Taiwan; and stained glass figures from Iowa, to name a few.

“Each one has a personality and each one tells the story in a unique way,” Francis says.

Yet, each tells the same story, first told more than 2,000 years ago, about the most celebrated birth in human history—the birth of Jesus Christ.

The Christmas Story

Christians around the world have celebrated the birth of Christ for centuries, re-creating the rustic setting in Bethlehem where the Bible says the baby was born.

Some early church displays were simple, consisting of nothing more than a hay-filled crib and a few farm animals. St. Francis of Assisi is credited with popularizing the Nativity in the year 1223 when he celebrated Mass in a manger filled with hay in Greccio, Italy. Friends brought in an ox and donkey to set the scene.

Other Nativity scenes and re-enactments were elaborate and dramatic, including angels heralding the baby’s birth; Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph; shepherds and their flocks; and gift-bearing kings and their camel caravans.

In 18th-century Naples, Italy, artists created Nativity figures of great variety and expressiveness. Scenes grew to depict the entire town of Bethlehem, as wealthy families vied for the most elegant and elaborate display.

“The crèche (the French word for crib) has been a form of art for centuries,” says James Govan of Arlington, Va. “There’s no wonder people are interested in it.”

Govan is president of Friends of the Crèche, a group formed two years ago to gather and disseminate information about the crèche. The group’s 350 members are comprised of artists and businessmen, authors and educators, clergy and collectors, all interested in learning more about the crèche and its traditions.

Many of the Nativity sets made in developing countries are created as handicrafts to be sold to tourists and overseas markets. Nativity figures are made from every material imaginable: chocolate and coal, cloth and corn husks, beeswax and banana leaves, glass and metal, pottery and papier-mâché, soap and straw, wire and wood shavings. Some artists incorporate local beliefs, customs, clothing, or animals in the Nativity figures they create.

The Beyeas’ collection, for example, includes a set from Laos featuring an elephant and pigs rather than the traditional donkey and ox. A cloth doll set made by the Masai tribe in Kenya has Joseph carrying a spear rather than his traditional staff. A giraffe and zebra are the featured animals.

Other differences are subtler. Some Nativity sets feature angels or doves; sometimes Mary, Joseph, and Jesus have halos; sometimes they don’t. In some sets, the human figures are primitively carved, while the animals are carved with great detail.

“We like to see how various cultures depict the same story,” Linda says, noting that most of the couple’s Nativity sets were purchased during travels across North America.

An Enduring Symbol

Christ’s birth has been a powerful story throughout the ages. The Nativity is a three-dimensional depiction of that timeless story and an enduring symbol of faith, hope, and love for Christians around the world.

The Nativity also has developed into an international art form with a universal message that speaks to people of all faiths and cultures. It is a story of family, new beginnings, the miracle of life, and a spiritual presence.

“It’s hard not to get interested in the birth of a new baby,” says Rita Bocher, editor of the Creche Herald, a quarterly newsletter published since 1997 in Wynnewood, Pa.

Bocher’s quarterly newsletter contains an abbreviated list of the hundreds of Nativity displays, pageants, and other crèche-related events around the world during the holidays and throughout the year.

From a 1,000-crèche exhibit, organized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Ann Arbor, Mich., to a single Nativity scene, built in 1944 by German prisoners of war, displayed at the Kossuth County Fairgrounds in Algona, Iowa, the Nativity is celebrated in communities across the nation.

Meanwhile, in Phillipsburg, the Beyeas use their Nativity collection to welcome people into their church and to visually tell the story of Christ’s birth. Hauling boxes from the attic and setting up the large display is worthwhile, the couple says, when one of their Nativity sets evokes a fond childhood memory or opens someone’s heart to the warmth of the season.

“Our faith means nothing,” Francis says, “if we’re not sharing it.”

Stuart Englert is a regional editor for American Profile.

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