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| 12/12/2003 5:38:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article
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| Photo by Kim Lamb |
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Thirty-one years of collecting creates large nativity scene
By Rocky Wilson
of the Chieftain
A lot of people have small nativity sets that they put up before Christmas and take down after the holiday season. Few have a complete nativity set depicting the entire town of Bethlehem and surrounding hills as does Nancy Trump of Wallowa.
In 1972 the active Wallowa senior citizen began her collection with the basic nativity set of the holy family, two angels, three wise men, two shepherds and two sheep. Annually she has added to her collection until Christmas of 2003 where she has over 200 pieces that take up a whole wall of her house from the level of her piano keyboard and television set to the ceiling.
Trump says that her ‘Town of Bethlehem’ is comprised of 5” figurines displayed at a number of levels with the emphasis on the manger and the Christ child. The dimensions of her Christmas oriented display stretch nine feet along one wall with a four foot L shaped section branching off of it. The baby Jesus lays right in the corner. The multi tiered levels were created by shelves made by husband Charlie Trump and from boxes.
This year she has added a cloth water fountain in the village, a river and a pond with ducks.
“I wanted something to indicate what Christmas is all about,” says a lady who puts up her display, valued at over $3,500, before Thanksgiving and takes it down from mid to late January. Instead of laying out a dozen pieces on a flat surface as she did in 1972, Trump now spends three full days putting up her detailed display and one to two days taking it down. “Each person has its own box,” she says.
Ninety to ninety-five percent of the figures in her display come from a town in Italy called Fontanini where a local artist sculpts the unique pieces, pours the mold, then is assisted by villagers who do the actual painting. Trump says the first pieces she bought from Fontanini cost her $1.98 each. Now, 31 years later, the average piece costs $17.50. She says that a special piece of a woman sitting on a well with a baby, were she to buy it, would cost her $29.50.
Because the cost of purchasing buildings from Fontanini would be too expensive and take up too much space, Trump constructs her city’s backdrop with drawings and colored copies on paper. The mountains are painted on to poster board.
Charlie is somewhat of a handyman and has created such pieces as a swinging corral gate, a stairway coming off of a mountain, a hay rick, a donkey cart and a hay cart with wheels that turn. A few of the pieces, not many, were made in China.
Her ‘Town of Bethlehem’ reflects the village 2000 years ago, says Trump, where only the holy family, the shepherds and the many angels knew the significance of the birth. She has a wedding taking place in the temple, a vineyard with grapes and jugs, and a potter’s shop. Many figurines depict villagers coming into Bethlehem from the surrounding hills, gathering to report for the census. Because the three wise men did not visit Christ until 15 months after the virgin birth, said Trump, she has their figures placed at a distance in the mountains.
Angels hang from a dark, night sky fabric.
Trump says that she is not opposed to Santa Claus and the Christmas tree, but says she “wants to focus on Christianity and about what God did through Christ for us.” She has not put up a tree the past few years.
The voluminous nativity is only one interest of the busy Wallowa woman who changes her nativity layout from year to year. She works as a part time bookkeeper at Shell Mercantile in Wallowa, is secretary of the Wallowa County Public Transit Advisory Committee, is president of the Wallowa Senior Center Advisory Group, is a general member and historian of the Wallowa County Search & Rescue organization and is editor of the monthly Blue Mountain Old Time Fiddlers’ Association newsletter.
She looks at her nativity scene as an opportunity to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. “We are too often neglecting the important part,” she said.
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Reader Comments
Posted: Thursday, November 24, 2005
Article comment by:
Janet Arnett
Where can I get started purchasing this "Town of Bethleham"?
Posted: Thursday, December 18, 2003
Article comment by:
Becki Flynn
What a wonderful encouraging article. Thank you so much to Mrs. Trump for sharing her awesome Nativity Scene. Christ is what Christmas is all about!
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