I am a collector by nature – if you saw my CD collection, or my personal library of books, you would know what I mean. I married a woman who also is a collector, but it wasn’t as obvious at first. A number of years ago I realized that Beth had a number of crèches that she would set up around the house during the Advent and Christmas seasons. As each year went by she would acquire more and more of these nativity scenes – each one different from all the rest in some way. When we travelled she would look for nativity scenes unique to that region and if such an item was found she would purchase it and add it to her collection. She eventually acquired so many that she has begun to put on a special display at our church every Advent. While other members of the congregation also bring their crèches to put on display, Beth’s nativity sets make up the bulk of the display.
Upon seeing this collection many folks have asked where we have room for all
these crèches, and indeed storage is a challenge. We have a number of plastic totes that are
dedicated exclusively for this crèche collection. I realize that at some point
in the future down-sizing will be another challenge to face, but for now the
collection continues to grow with a few new nativity sets added every year.
You might think that such an obsession might be a source of tension in
our marriage, that I would be frustrated with this growing collection of items
that typically only get displayed once a year.
But that is not the case at all – I don’t mind my wife’s enthusiasm for
nativity displays, in fact I rather enjoy them myself.
Some might suggest that Nativity Sets make a terrible mish-mash of two
very different incarnational stories, that they tend to romanticize the
Christmas story, that they are nothing more than Christmas kitsch. On one level
each of these accusations are legitimate observations, but they are not enough
to over-ride my enjoyment of this crèche collection and what they represent.
The reason I enjoy looking at nativity sets from around the world is that they reflect in some way the culture and customs of the people who created them. A few of my favourite crèches from my wife’s collection include:
- From Venice, Italy - the Holy Family in a gondola, crafted by a local glass artisan.
- From Mexico - brightly painted figures on embossed metal of some sort.
- From Switzerland - hand carved wooden set, complete with a music box mechanism.
- From Peru - hand painted clay set, the whole nativity set held in a pair of hands.
- From Africa - carved black wood, the Holy Family as black skinned people.
What these nativity sets represent to me is an expression of the truth that Christ is for all people, that all races and cultures can claim Jesus as one of their own. The variety of crèches in this collection attests to this diversity. Jesus is not relegated to one place in time and space, rather Christ transcends all culture and history. The incarnation means the God took on human flesh and came to be one of us, the incarnation means God identifies with us deeply - regardless of our cultural, racial, or historical identities. I can’t think of a simpler way of expressing that message than to show the Christ child in a variety of settings, and our crèche collection does just that.
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