Nativity in the genes

There's a country in the Mediterranean that's small in size, but its people are big on Nativity scenes, writes Becky Vargo in the Grand Haven Tribune of Michigan:

"Christmas (in Malta) is centered around religious celebrations and Nativity scenes are popular at every house," said Denise Simcik, a native of the 122-square-mile island country located about 60 miles south of Sicily. So in comparison, she said the display in her Spring Lake Village home is pretty small, but one of which she is very proud.

"My great-grandfather (who died in 1910) enjoyed collecting Nativity," Simcik said. "Every year, he built a large Nativity scene for his local church. He was the first one on the island to build statues with moving parts."

Simcik said she believes she got her interest in collecting Nativity figures while following her great-grandfather around as a little girl. After marrying her husband, Mike, a native of the Chicago area, she brought her interest to the United States — first decorating their home, then the bed and breakfast she and her husband operated in Saugatuck for 17 years.

The Nativity scene takes up a good portion of one of the rooms in the Simcik home. The buildings are Middle Eastern — flat roofs with ledges, and outside stairs with access to the roofs. "Malta has the same climate and terrain as the Middle East without the desert," Simcik said. "There's a scarcity of rain and everything is built out of limestone."..

Simcik said Malta is a very Catholic country where people take great pride in their Nativity scenes. There are even clubs whose members promote interest in Nativity and who hold contests for creating the best scenes...Simcik said most of the figures in her Nativity set are at least 25 years old and were hand-molded "by an old man in Malta" out of Maltese clay. At the time, she purchased the statues for about $10 each. "I have close to 50 statues," she said.

Denise, 60, a part-time employee at Grand Haven Bank, met her husband in Malta. Mike was in the U.S. Navy at the time and was attached to the American Embassy in Malta. They married when she was 20 and moved back to the Chicago area to raise their family...