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N a t i v i t y USA
Dedicated to Promoting the Outdoor Display of Nativity Sets
Message from NativityUSA's Founder
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One
Christmas Eve in the mid-ninety’s I wandered with man’s best friend through
my neighborhood in York, Pennsylvania. Eighty-seven homes stood before me,
beautifully decorated all celebrating the Christmas season, a time in today’s
society heralding the emergence of retail stores into the black and,
ostentatiously, celebrating the birth of Christ.
Each
house in the development – located in the center of a golf course - had a
unique expression of celebration; some had extravagant lighting schemes, others
moving figurines and yet others had lighted statues of Santa Claus. My home was
one of them, each window carefully decorated with a single candle and a wreath.
Somewhere during the solitary walk it struck me that at not even a single home was there any overt display of Christmas, specifically the presence of an outdoor Nativity set.
An
idea was born.
Over
the next year I sought out Nativity figurines. Uncertain of exactly what I
wanted, I would visit lawn and garden stores in search of Nativities only to have
my quest futilely end.
One
day, in the most unlikely of places, I stumbled upon a house cluttered with lawn
ornaments pretending to be a store. It was run by an elderly woman and had the
most unusual ornaments and statues I’d encountered in my search. In the corner
of one room was the dust-covered beginnings of my family Nativity set.
A couple hundred bucks was all that separated my family from Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus.
Weighing
in at an even 130 pounds Joseph, by far, presented then and still does to this
day, the greatest problem. He is very tough to move out of my basement. The
donkey or Mary come in a close second. Thank goodness for strong children and
high school neighbors!
Envisioning
where to set these statues on our lawn I began thinking what a neat idea it
would be to have an enclosure to cover the figures in event of snow. My son and
I retreated to the wood shop and designed a six piece, modular, to-scale stable. Adding a
photoelectrical activated light system assured us that the Holy Family and their
menagerie would be lighted during darkness for all to see.
Over
the years, I’ve developed a personal fascination with outdoor Nativity sets. I
vividly recall from my youth in the Olney section of Philadelphia the beautiful Nativity that
graced the rectory lawn of St. Helena's Roman Catholic Church.
Despite
my family's personal outdoor Nativity, the obvious scarcity elsewhere in our contemporary Christmas continued to trouble me.
What,
I thought, could be done to encourage the outdoor display of Nativity sets,
particularly during the Christmas season?
My
real job brings me in close contact with information technology solutions. Could
the Internet be used to help spread this message? NativityUSA was
created to do just that.
With
its own web site (www.NativityUSA.org),
I envisioned a place where persons who encounter a bonafide Christmas symbol –
an outdoor Nativity set – can submit a photograph and a description of it for
all the world to see.
The
site was launched December 15th, 2002 and has, as of this writing, a meager 12
images from two states. One goal of the organization is to have all 50 states
represented on the site by Christmas 2005. Another goal is to recognize
individuals and organizations publicly displaying Nativities.
NativityUSA
encourages all who celebrate Christmas to display a Nativity set in a public
setting. Please accept this personal welcome to share your Nativity experience and
photographs with us for all the world to see.
Merry
Christmas!
Founder, NativityUSA
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