Nativity Set

Copyright 2009, 2013 by John LaTorre

At a garage sale the other day, I noticed a Nativity set (also called a “creche set”) on a table. For those who are unacquainted with the term, let me explain that a creche set is a collection of statues which represent the participants at the first Christmas. There are always figures of Joseph, Mary, and the infant Jesus; the more complete assortments also include one or more angels, a shepherd or two, the three Wise Men, and various livestock like sheep, cows, and camels. These figures are used as Christmas decorations in Catholic households and, like the other decorations, are usually set up on the first Sunday in Advent and taken down after the Feast of the Epiphany, wrapped in paper, and stored away with the other decorations until the next Christmas season.

I noticed that this set had no price tag and, even at the closing of the sale, no customers. When I asked the salespeople what would happen to it, they told me that everything that wasn't sold was going into a dumpster. Being the sentimentalist that I am, I took the set to donate to a Catholic church in the neighborhood, in the hope that the set would find its way to some family who would find it as fascinating as I did when I was small.

Our own family always displayed a creche scene at Christmastime, eventually acquiring a genuine Hummel collection when we were stationed in Germany for a while. Like most families, we would set the figures of Mary, Joseph, and the empty manger out at the beginning of the season, and add the figurine for the baby Jesus on Christmas Eve. In Catholic families, this is traditionally done by the youngest child in the family, which was me until I was eleven. Then my sister came along, and it was her turn. I remember adding my own variation: while the creche set was set up on one side of the living room, we would put the shepherds and their sheep on the other side, and these would not be added to the main collection until Christmas Day.

This variation was probably inspired by another tradition we had. The figures of the three Wise Men were put up in the most distant place in the house from the living room. On Christmas Day, they were moved a twelfth of the way to the creche. Every day thereafter, they traveled a little further through our house, until they arrived at the manger on January 6. (I seem to recall that my siblings and I took turns moving the company a little each day.) It was my mother's way of dramatizing the Christmas story, I think, and of allowing us children an opportunity to participate in it. As far as I know, our family is the only one who practiced this particular ritual, although Mom may have heard of it from somebody.

There isn't much room in my life for a creche set anymore, but I hope that the family who ends up with my garage sale acquisition ends up with the same warm memories I had of our set, and finds their own way to commemorate the Christmas season. It's a perfectly good set – all the major characters are there, all in suitably devout poses. With a little luck, it can serve a number of families for a long, long time.