My Favorite Nativity Sets

One day, years ago when I was about 8 years old, I was out with my family - my parents, big brother and little brother. We were running errands or shopping or something. One of the stops we made was at a church, where a sale was going on. I don't remember if this was a planned stop, or if we just happened upon it. One detail of this trip remains vivid in my memory to this day. One of the items the church was selling was a nativity set. I fell in love with it on the spot. At home we had one or two well-worn, somewhat broken pieces, but nothing like a whole set. This set was perfect. Just the right size, just the right shape, and wondrously beautiful. Breathlessly, I looked at the price tag. $25.00. My heart sank. This was in the 1960s and $25 might as well have been $25,000. I believe I shamelessly begged for it, saying that it could be my birthday, Christmas present, etc. for years to come. My parents conferred, but in the end we drove away without the nativity set, and I never saw it again. I was heartbroken, and to this day, the memory still lingers and stings. I must not have kept my sorrow to myself, because some time later my mother bought figurines of the Holy Family - Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus. They were quite a bit bigger than the beautiful little nativity set pieces. She also picked up some plywood in the vain hope that we could fashion a stable. That never really happened, but the figures remain in the family to this day. Unfortunately, however, no matter how nice this set was, it was not the nativity set of my dreams.

Many years later my 40th birthday was approaching. I was still single, and on the verge of buying my first home of my own. My mother wanted to give me something very special for this landmark birthday. On that day my mother presented me with a beautiful, lovely Fontanini nativity set! It was a similar in size to the lost set of my childhood, and I loved it. I can't remember now if my mother asked me what I would like or if she surprised me with it. But it was a fantastic, wonderful birthday gift. And since my birthday is in October, I was able to use it quite soon after my birthday. I set it up both in the apartment I was leaving, and then a short time later in the brand-new condo I moved into a few days before Christmas. Just two months after this I met my future husband, so this became "our" nativity set.

One great thing about the Fontanini Nativity sets is that there are so many different pieces. There are angels, animals, shepherds, figures from the bible, as well as all kinds of accessories. If you want to build a whole nativity village, you are limited only by your imagination and the amount of space you have. We don't have a lot of room, but we enjoyed adding pieces to our set. My mother gave us extra sheep, some Roman soldiers and a few other figures. My husband, Gary, for one of our early Christmases together, gave me a beautiful fireplace. When you plug it in the fire flickers. It's really lovely and adds to the whole ambiance. I loved the way our set was growing.

Eight years after receiving my beautiful nativity set, it was stolen from our storage room at our condo. At first we thought and hoped that it has just been misplaced. We had had to store lots of stuff because of some condo reconstruction, so we were hopeful that it had just been moved. But it was not to be. After other items turned up missing (including my wedding dress!) we realized that someone with access to the key (condo management?) must have stolen it. This happened just as my mother was about to suffer the stroke that led to her death a few months later. Of course, compared to losing my mother, the loss of our nativity set was a minor thing. But is was so connected to her that to this day we have not replaced it. Of course, part of the reason is that I am stubborn. I want the same set, and it is not to be found anywhere!

A friend I know from work collects nativity sets. She is from Argentina, and in Spanish they are known as "nacimientos" or "pesebres." I wanted to give her a tiny one to add to her collection, and found a great shop in town that carries a wide variety, mostly from Latin America. This was the same year that our set was stolen. We hadn't accepted it yet, but since we didn't have a set for that Christmas, I bought us a small set from Mexico at the same time that I bought the gift. I figured I could always use it at work when we found ours. Well, that has been the only set we have had now for several years. Of course, every year we also set up my mother-in-law's set, which my husband remembers from his childhood. It is a cunning little set that has a folding floor. It folds up into the stable when not in use, and folds down when it is in use. I love taking it out at my mother-in-law's home and setting it up every year. It is amazing to me that, as much as I love nativity sets, we only really have one right now. Maybe because the set from my childhood and the set from my adulthood meant so much to me, it has been hard to "move on."