At the hillside home of Raton resident Mary Lou Pavlich an outdoor lighted Christmas nativity reminds passersby of the real reason for Christmas, while an invitation inside her home garners visitors a look at one of the most unique collections in the community – hundreds upon hundreds of nativity sets – a good chunk of which are on display, keeping the spirit of Christmas alive year around.
The entertainment center is lined with nativities, several are nestled on the hearth of the fireplace and an end tables and cabinets, one is tucked into a kitchen corner and some are even perched on the edge of the bathtub. Close to a 100 sets repose in a curio cabinet. Others are scattered throughout the home, spilling into the bedrooms and out onto the patio, a mixed sampling highlighting an extensive collection totaling 600 pieces.
In the Christian tradition, a Nativity, also known as a manger scene, a creche, or in Italian, presepio, is a portrayal, especially during the Christmas season, of the birth of Jesus as illustrated in the New Testament’s Gospels of Matthew and Luke.
St. Francis of Assisi is credited with beginning the custom of the Christmas creche. This first live Nativity of Jesus, staged in 1223 at Greccio, a town in central Italy, was an attempt by St. Francis to place the emphasis of Christmas on Jesus’ birth rather than materialism and gift-giving.
Pavlich is a retired veteran, who served her country for twenty years in the United States Air Force. While in the military, Pavlich, already trained as a registered nurse when she enlisted, worked in medical surgical wards and was a flight nurse in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive. She also racked up a few educational degrees, resulting in an impressive set of credentials: a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, a Master of Arts in Administration, and later on after mustering out of the service, a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering from NM Tech University.
It was during Pavlich’s military assignment in France, in an Air Force Base Exchange store, that a nativity by the House of Fontanini caught her eye, captured her heart, and ultimately became the hook that got the collection started. “When I was stationed at Evreaux Air Force Base I saw some nativities in the BX there, and the Fontanini was the one that really attracted me to start collecting them,” Pavlich says, “and then I decided I needed one from every country.”
The House of Fontanini is a family owned company based in Italy that is renowned for their Nativity crafts. The company specializes in handcrafted, hand-painted nativity figures, composed of polymer resin for durability. In recent years Pavlich’s collection has been topped up with a couple more Fontanini add-ons.
Although the collecting task that Pavlich set for herself wasn’t really feasible, she has managed to collect nativities from at least halfway around the world. Some of the countries represented in her collection, in addition to the United States, include France, Russia, Columbia, Spain, Peru, Mexico, Taiwan, the Holy Land, and Italy, to name a few.
Part of the uniqueness of nativities derives from the materials they are made of. Pavlich says “most of her collection is ceramic”. Other nativities in the collection are made of metal, wood, stone, cloth, polymer resin and gourds. One unusual set, handcrafted by family member Kathyrn Pavlich, features small round gourd nativity figures, with hand painted faces and clothing, in a larger gourd manger. Another standout is a one-dimensional painting of the Holy Family on a circular saw blade, the work of a young disabled man from Bay City, Texas.
Where does Pavlich find the nativity sets that comprise her massive collection? “Basically where I’ve gotten them from are department stores, such as Neiman-Marcus, and mail order catalogs,” Pavlich states. Of course while she was serving her country, she found many in the Base Exchange stores in places where she was stationed. “I also get a lot of them as gifts,” she says. “In fact the nativities in that whole area over there were all gifts,” she adds, pointing to the shelves of her entertainment center. Undoubtedly, family gift exchanges during the 2018 Christmas season will yield some new nativity treasures to beef up her collection.
Pavlich, who has accumulated her vast collection of nativities over a period of 40 years, hopes to continue collecting “until she has to stop”. She’s constantly on the lookout for new additions to her collection, but she doesn’t buy every one that she sees. “Initially I did,” she states, “but now I’m a little more selective. I’m going more for countries, instead of buying anything and everything that’s available.”
Pavlich finds that limiting her purchases of nativities to those from individual countries has led her to a better understanding of world cultures since the nativities tend to reflect the culture of the country of their origin. “You learn a little bit about the different countries, what they feel as far as their religion is concerned and what they picture as the Nativity, “ she explains.
The process of storing and displaying the nativities is not always easy to deal with. “They take up two closet spaces and part of my garage,” she notes. A part of the collection is always on display, but she likes to change it out around the holiday season. “I change things around at Christmas time. I’ll put some different ones up and I’ll probably put some away. Those in the curio cabinet I keep up year around,” she says.
Pavlich’s niece Kathy Starkovich and her sister Phyllis Pavlich lend a hand bringing some of the nativities out of storage, putting others away, and with general rearranging.
By all accounts Pavlich is happy with her collection, but in hindsight wishes she had started collecting sooner. “I just love my collection,” she states,“ It makes me feel good that I started something like this, so different. I should have started much, much sooner. In my travels I could have picked up a lot more, if I had started earlier.”
A long time friend John Bacca, I surely enjoyed the picture and article about him. His wife Mabel also a long time friend w as also a class mate of mine in school. Both were good hard working people.