Crèches and Carols — A St. Louis Community Christmas Tradition
By Dana L. King, Meridian Correspondent

ST. LOUIS, Missouri — When a crèche exhibit was first proposed in the St. Louis Missouri Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the reaction among some was apprehensive and skeptical. 

Some said, “Why would anyone want to see plastic and porcelain dime store figurines, and 500 of them at that?” 

Others asked, “Is it even possible to collect 500 different crèches interesting enough to attract people?” 

A few skeptics pointed out, “Only women love these things.” 

Others made a good point by asking, “Aren’t people busy enough during the holidays?”  “Who will come?” “Who will volunteer?”

But the most common reaction was, “What’s a crèche?”

Crèche is a French word meaning crib or manger.  In English it usually refers to the nativity scene. And it was crèches — 500 of them from cultures around the world — that were displayed the first weekend of December at St. Louis Stake’s Crèches and Carols, so named for its nativity displays and music performed by community groups.

And who would come? This year, despite a snow storm that closed the exhibit the first day, 3000 community members attended the third annual event.  Most were either friends of members or those who heard about the event from newspaper, TV, and radio announcements.

Such a turnout is typical for large exhibits held around the world. Data vary on the number, but in the United States and Canada at least 50 major nativity exhibits take place every Christmas season.  Drawing thousands of visitors each, an estimated 75 percent are hosted by wards or stakes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The first major exhibit hosted by church members was a humble effort begun in 1983 by Relief Society sisters of the Ann Arbor, Michigan First Ward.  Member Betsy Christensen displayed her 65 crèches for a Relief Society function. Soon the idea grew to a community exhibit with participation from several other wards.  Today, in its 26th year, the Ann Arbor exhibit receives 3000 patrons for the four-day event.  Most patrons — 90 percent — are first-timers to the event, and most are not members.  

 

The Ann Arbor exhibit has inspired many spin-offs. Kent Christensen says he has tried tracking the spin-offs, but “it is difficult to know how many are a result of ours.  There are so many now we can’t keep up with them.”

Several factors have influenced the growing popularity of crèche exhibits among stakes and wards.  Stakes and wards can easily pool the resources of several wards to jump-start an exhibit. In one ward you can typically find 20-30 unique crèches. Multiply that across several wards, and you have enough to start a major exhibit to draw thousands of patrons.  Add crèches from members’ friends and other community organizations, and you begin a database of hundreds and even thousands. Tables, easels and other necessary props are easily collected across wards.  Not to mention donations of decorations and fabric — yards and yards — to cover tables and backdrop walls.  

Is it possible to collect hundreds of unique nativities?  Yes!  In any stake, particularly in the US and Canada, there are typically members and community friends who are avid crèche collectors.  Many personal collections number dozens or even hundreds.

At the St. Louis Crèches and Carols exhibit, 503 nativities were contributed by 92 people.  Five of these contributors have personal collections numbering 50 or more. Contributors have enabled the exhibit to build a database of more than 800, and the exhibit rotates the collection each year to keep the displays fresh. Another exhibit in Palo Alto, California displays 450 crèche drawn from a database of 1500 and loaned by 100 contributors. 

Creche inside a walnut 

What is the appeal for serious crèche collectors? Many will tell you it is the thrill of the hunt to find that one crèche no one has seen before. Crèche enthusiasts hunt the world over looking for interpretations of Christ’s birth across cultures.

“It opens up a whole vision of Christ’s work all over the world.  There is something reverent about it,” says Holly Zenger, Director of the Midway Utah Stake Interfaith Crèche Exhibit and consultant to the St. Louis Crèches and Carols Exhibit.

Crèche collecting has become so popular that a society has formed, Friends of the Crèche.  The organization publishes a newsletter and holds annual national conventions. According to their web site, the society is dedicated to furthering the tradition of the crèche.

But besides readily available resources, the most significant reason why stake and ward leaders support such exhibits is that they attract a large non-LDS audience.  And significant bridge-building happens as Church members reach out in a spirit of giving back and sharing with the community.  In fact, many wards and stakes present the exhibit as their gift to the community.

Exhibit visitors come from many groups. Holly Zenger and her team have worked hard to help friends of other faiths feel comfortable entering the Midway Stake Center.  She estimates it took five years to overcome misperceptions of the Church and for a significant number of non-LDS groups to feel welcome. 

The Midway, Utah Exhibit, now in its tenth year, draws an annual crowd of 10,000.  The interfaith community has also embraced it and now provides most of the hosting for the event. For Holly, the most striking example of interfaith friendship and goodwill came last year.  As she arrived at the Midway Stake Center, she saw Reverend Weissert of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Provo, Utah, and his congregants greeting Latter-day Saints as they entered the building.

Unlike Midway, Utah, the Church in St. Louis, Missouri is a minority faith.  But in just three years Crèches and Carols has become a large community event.  Involvement spans a wide range of groups, including Christian, Muslims and Jewish friends. 

Non-profit groups provide music, artistic demonstrations, and crèches. Civic leaders lend further support by attending a private reception and tour hosted by the St. Louis Stake’s Public Affairs Council. Three other stakes in the greater metropolitan area are now involved as well.    

CC-KARA 142, CAPTION: Mamady Sidime, seventh generation woodcarver from West Africa, teaches the children in the Creches and Carol's Africa room. 

Andrea Bezzant, a director of the St. Louis exhibit, brings experience from her work with a California exhibit. She was struck the first year with how readily St. Louis accepted the exhibit. She says, “I credit this to the fact that many in St. Louis are a churchgoing people and desire to have Christ in their lives.

St. Louisans quickly embraced this exhibit as a tradition.” Noting how far the exhibit has come in just three years, Andrea adds, “Not only do we reach across cultures, we reach across religions. For example, this year we have a Muslim man demonstrating woodcarving in our African-themed room.”

Because this is a community event, there is no effort to solicit missionary referrals. Church leaders consider the event a “warming activity” to build feelings of goodwill and community solidarity while remembering Christ’s birth. Though no referrals are sought, missionary work does happen as members invite their friends and neighbors and share their personal beliefs of Christ.  To this end, 15,000 postcards were distributed by ward mission leaders in four stakes for members to use as invitations.    

Quilt, an original design by Sally Morgan, made for the Creches and Carols exhibit

The exhibit naturally evokes emotion and questions about the Savior and often the Church as well. Many who are not members of the Church are pleasantly surprised to learn Latter-day Saints believe in Christ. This is especially true in places like St. Louis, where misconceptions about LDS beliefs are pervasive. St. Louis Mission President Gary Gessel notes, “The exhibit really helps people understand our faith in Christ and belief in Him.”

A nativity exhibit accomplishes much of what an open house does.  The public learns what the church buildings are for, what Latter-day Saints believe, and how they worship. Upon seeing the organ in the chapel, one patron to St. Louis Crèches and Carols remarked that she didn’t know Latter-day Saints sing in Church services. Her curiosity led to a conversation about Latter-day Saint worship and very naturally to an invitation to sacrament meeting.

Scott Cannon of the Maryland Heights ward in St. Louis invited his colleagues from work to the event.  He remarked, “This is the best thing that we do all year, and it makes it easier for me to invite my friends because I know it’s going to be spectacular. People are converted by how they feel. This event shows who we are.” 

The Black family dress in costume

On the flip side, Latter-day Saints’ understanding and respect for others is also enlarged as they view the faith and art of many cultures. St. Louis North Stake President, Terry Slezak, observed, “It’s impressive that so many parts of the world are represented.  We are all children of God, and no matter where we are in the world Christ’s birth affects us all.”  

Although crèche exhibits hosted by stakes and wards do build better relations and promote understanding about the Church and communities, all crèche exhibits accomplish a vital central purpose — they put Christ back into Christmas. This may explain the noticeably reverent tone, in spite of the open house format, the festive décor, and large crowds, sometimes with Disneyland-long lines. 

Children don’t run through the cultural hall even though they are used to basketball and other activities there during the week. Instead they walk and gaze thoughtfully, and sometimes lengthily, at the displays. Patrons speak in hushed voices, though there is no explicit instruction to do so. One young patron, seven-year-old Kendell Carter remarked, “It’s about baby Jesus, and that’s what I like.”

Brothers Miles and Kendal Carter, enjoying the Creches and Carols exhibit 

Menlo Smith, a volunteer for the St. Louis event, summed up the spirit noticed by many, “This whole exhibit just manifests a wonderful spirit where people come in here and they just leave feeling good with an enhanced appreciation for the Savior and the season.”

The spirit of the event is enhanced by musical numbers performed in the chapel at half- hour intervals and piped throughout the building. Thirty-six different community groups and individuals provide music for Crèches and Carols.  Twenty-five percent are not members of the Church.   

Rising Generation Youth Chorus, a St. Louis area multi-stake choir, performs for guests in the chapel. 

Many of the performing groups also draw audiences of families, friends, and fans to the exhibit.  A popular draw to Crèches and Carols each year is Staam, a Jewish a capella choir from Washington University. Their unique and Hebraic sound offers a special flavor to the event. 

New this year were Polynesian singers and dancers who shared Christmas from the Islands. Professional groups from Branson performed at the Springfield, Missouri exhibit. 

But whether the groups are professionals or piano students, all come humbly and desiring to do their best. “I know when I perform that it will be God’s way to touch the hearts and souls of others and glorify Him,” says Maria Cannon, a member of Maryland Heights ward who played guitar and sang for the St. Louis event.

Behind the scenes is an army of volunteers making the event happen.  And furthering the tradition of the crèche by an exhibit is no task for the faint-hearted.  At the St. Louis Crèches and Carols exhibit, it takes special dedication by four directors for several weeks of the holiday season.  Their world — and the world of their families — revolves around the exhibit.

In St. Louis this year, the task was even more challenging because a winter storm hit the Midwest just as the event was opening. All four directors, Shawn Zenger (Holly Zenger’s daughter-in-law), Andrea Bezzant, Karen Lindmark, and Julie Schenk, woke Friday, the first morning of the exhibit, to find no power in their homes and broken tree limbs in their yards. The Lindmarks watched a tree fall and land on the roof of their home.  The Bezzants found a live wire down in their backyard. The Frontenac building, where the exhibit is held, also lost power. There was no choice but to close the exhibit before it even opened.  

As headlines read “Power Out for Days,” it became apparent that the only way for the exhibit to open was with a generator.  Calls were put out for generators, and when it seemed all resources were exhausted, the last possible call found a floor model.  Never used before, the Whisper 2000 generator designed to run quietly was just what the exhibit needed.   

President Mathew A. Thomas and Bishop Stuart Larsen of St. Louis Missouri Stake read the headlines. 

But finding a generator was only half the task.  Finding an electrician available and familiar with the building was an even greater challenge. President Tom Blair, counselor in the St. Louis Stake presidency, called Sonny Houston who works for the Church’s local Facilities Management group, “Houston, we’ve got a problem.” By Friday night, Sonny had found an electrician.  Just minutes before the exhibit was scheduled to open on Saturday, the lights and the heat went on.  

The "Whisper 2000" does the job!

In normal conditions, the exhibit draws the best and most dedicated volunteers. Just think about the lighting for 503 crèches. Florescent lighting just does not do justice to the artfully displayed crèches.  Customized lighting is better.  In the first year, the St. Louis organizers made do with lamps from home and portable spot lights clamped on props. Still, it was not enough. Menlo Smith, a member of the Frontenac ward in St. Louis Stake, remembers, “When I saw the marvelous job the sisters had done and the limited resources they had for lighting, it didn’t do justice to their splendid work and stunning displays.  I said we had to provide them with something different.”

The next year Menlo recruited the high priest quorum and the elders quorum of his ward to help create a lighting system. They spent 340 man-hours devising and installing a system of 260 soda cans painted white with the lids and bottoms cut off and a socket to fit inside. These were strung across displays throughout the building.

Menlo Smith installing lights at Creches and Carols.

The list of volunteers is almost endless.  Missionaries help set up tables, signs, and do virtually anything they are asked.  Shortly after cleaning up their family’s Thanksgiving meal, twenty-one designers spend at least four days artfully displaying the various vignette areas:  Europe, Israel, South America, Africa, Asia, whimsical, modern, porcelain, and miniature. Hosts and hostesses number 540 and help greet and direct the patrons during the exhibit.

Is the effort worth it? Of all the volunteers, no one could be more exhausted than the directors.  Despite four days with no power, little sleep, and aching feet, the directors are already planning next year’s event and making notes for improvement.  Ask Shawn Zenger why she does it and she’ll tell you, “It’s a really nice way to start the Christmas season. It’s peaceful. It’s a really nice place to be.” 

The Directors of the Creches and Carols Exhibit, very wise women. 

To learn how to organize a crèche exhibit contact Holly Zenger at: PO Box 1268 Midway, Utah, 84049 or Hollyzen@aol.com.