From plastic Legos to Lladro porcelain, banana leaves to bullet casings, the materials to create them run the gamut for the 400 Nativities from around the world on display in Kirtland. Historic Kirtland‘s “Behold, the Savior of the World” exhibit clearly shows many ways the birth of Jesus is celebrated from Zimbabwe to Peru.
A life-sized and snow-covered Nativity outside the Historic Kirtland Visitor Center, 7800 Kirtland-Chardon Road, lets visitors know they’re at the right place.
This is the 20th year the annual Christmas season display has been organized by volunteers for Historic Kirtland, who have set up the many figures of the wise men, animals, Joseph and Mary around the manger holding the baby Jesus. They’re on two floors of the Visitor Center, central to the 1832 village restored and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A sign inside tells the story of how the tradition of Nativities, also called creches, was begun in 1223 in Italy when St. Francis of Assisi wanted to emphasize the humble origins of Jesus with a re-enactment of his birth in Bethlehem. Artists began to carve nativities, and the tradition came to this country in 1774 when Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was settled.
Before being paused for the pandemic, the annual exhibit attracted upwards of 10,000 visitors to Kirtland during the holidays. This year organizers hope to see 5,000 people. It’s free and open to all from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 7 p.m. Sundays through New Year’s Eve, when it will close at 5 p.m. Cookies and hot chocolate will be offered to visitors on Fridays from 5 to 7 p.m.
Scott Barrick, Historic Kirtland site leader with his wife, Shauna, showed us some of the exhibit’s highlights while pointing out many of his favorites.
New directors of Historic Kirtland, Scott and Shauna Barrick excited to help tell its story
Following him into the Observation Room, where windows reveal split-rail fences framing snowy views of historic 1830s buildings, we see a special Christmas tree in a corner.
“This tree, with its handmade ornaments, is here in memory of Louise Novak,” he says, showing us ornaments crafted from dried orange and apple slices, tiny birds’ nests and greenery tucked into eggshells used as baskets.
“Louise was a longtime volunteer who each year created a tree decorated like those created by our ancestors,” he said. “She died three years ago, so this year her family members came together here to create this tree in her honor.”
Beautiful porcelain creches, including a valuable pastel Nativity from Spain’s Lladro, are here.
An elevator ride to the second floor takes us to a children’s room, where little ones can play while parents browse the exhibit. Children may touch and rearrange the figures in these Nativities, as well as pose among kid-sized figures for photos in a manger scene.
DeAnn Draper of Chardon, one of the many volunteers who worked to catalog and place the hundreds of individual Nativities, showed us a collection of Balthazar figures loaned by Lawrence Hill of Cleveland. They are arranged along a hallway leading to the main exhibition space. Balthazar, one of the wise men, was black and attired as an Arab. One figure is astride a camel.
Check throughout the exhibit for varied depictions of the gold, frankincense and myrrh brought by the wise men following a star to reach the Holy Family.
The wall along another side hall has paintings, postcards and old-time Christmas cards hanging for easy eye-level examination. Among them are small and colorful oil paintings of Nativity scenes from Peru.
Don’t miss the framed collection of 90 years of Christmas cards saved between 1906 and 2008 by Cleveland artist and designer Viktor Schreckengost. Many were created by his fellow artists and are signed with familiar names. This low-key and almost hidden-away part of the exhibit is near a small Nativity made from Legos and created by Brady, age 7.
The largest second-floor exhibit space holds a Nativity from Zanzibar crafted from soda cans sliced into strips and bent to form a baby in a manger surrounded by wise men, an alligator and a hippo instead of a donkey and lambs.
‘Behold, the Savior of the World’
What: 20th annual exhibit of Nativities.
Where: Historic Kirtland, 7800 Kirtland-Chardon Road.
When: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 7 p.m. Sunday through Dec. 31, when it will close at 5 p.m.
Admission: Free with free parking.
Info: ChristmasinKirtland.com.
