Written by MELISSA JACKSON | Photography by SARAH MOORE
Lynn Williams knew it was meant to be when she learned her future husband, Princeton, had cross-stitched a giant Nativity scene for his parents’ Christmas gift. Lynn, a cross-stitcher herself, was also a long-time Nativity collector.
As the daughter and granddaughter of missionaries, Lynn's Nativity collection has ancestral roots and deep emotional resonance documenting her family’s missionary travels through Colombia, Gaza and Yemen.
Nativities from her grandparents’ travels provide the foundation for her collection, but as a young missionary in her post-college years, Lynn expanded it with zeal. She wanted Nativities made of different materials and in different methods and from different places. So, she has an olive wood Nativity from Yemen, a hand-knitted set from South Africa, brass and wood pieces from India, and small gourd Nativities she believes came from Venezuela or Colombia.
In the 29 years since they married, Lynn and Princeton have continued to expand the Nativity collection together. They bought a recycled metal Nativity in Monterrey, Mexico, and purchased a silver-plated Nambé set that had to be procured one piece at a time over a couple of years in Santa Fe, N.M. To this day, it's a favorite set for both of them because they built it together.
“We didn't inherit it from anybody else,” Lynn recalls. “We got it ourselves.”
When their son Drew was born, the couple purchased a Fisher-Price Little People Nativity set just for him. It’s another one of the precious relics they box and unbox annually to prepare for the holiday season.
While Princeton was careful to position the porcelain and glass sets up higher, it was important that Drew be part of the couple’s Nativity story. The brass, wood and knitted sets were all available to him on low shelves and tabletops.
“When our son was little, he would want them all organized,” Lynn reminisces. “We could always tell he had been into the Nativities because he would organize them all in a little semicircle. Princeton is our decorator, and he wants them displayed – not in a semicircle.”
Nativity season at the Williamses’ house takes weeks to prepare. Lynn and Princeton rent a storage unit for their nine Christmas trees, hundreds of ornaments, and dozens of carefully wrapped Nativity sets that tell the story of the Christ child's birth.
Those Nativities also tell of the Williamses’ travels around the world, but perhaps more importantly, they reveal their lives filled with adventure, love and faithful reflection. NCM
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