Festival of Nativities brings pieces from around the world

CORRALES — It was a diverse display of Nativities at the Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales Dec. 14.

Veronica Dutczak, Corrales Historical Society Nativities Festival chair, was pleased with the turnout at the day’s Festival of Nativities.

“With the Historical Society, our mission is to teach, and so we have the story of how the Nativities began and we invite people to bring their nativities,” Dutczak said.

They ranged in size, theme and color. They were also from all over the world with some coming all the way from Russia, Poland and Germany.

“Most of these nativities, like 99 of them, are the public bringing theirs to shareb and then we earn like 30 and we fill in any holes that might be left. They’re from all over the world. A couple tables, we kind of have some kid-friendly ones,” Dutczak added.

One man built a Lego Nativity with about 4,000 pieces, she said.

Some smaller ones were made of a variety of material such as wood, glass or even plastic. Some rare ones from Africa and Hawaii were made with Coconut or other materials.

Dutczak was particularly impressed by one Nativity made by Native Americans.

“I was sitting in church at the fellowship hall after church, and the lady who wanted to donate this to the society, she’s Native American. She was telling me the story of it. A different family member painted each piece, so it meant a lot to her,” she said.

The Old Church was well attended by onlookers. Many Nativity sets earned praise from people. Some earned laughter however, like a rubber ducky Nativity set.

The day was a success, according to Dutczak.