The baby Jesus is the center of Christmas celebrations throughout the region. For some, nativity sets are an heirloom passed through generations. Others proudly display handcrafted wooden mangers.

Like the holiday itself, Susan Wallish of Weatherly received hers as a gift.

“My neighbor Girlie Gerhard gave me this handmade manger set two years ago with precious statues and straw from 1976 when her husband Mahlon (who passed away last year) made this manger for them years ago,” Wallish said.

“She knew I would appreciate this and give it a good home.”

Patricia Woginrich’s manger is a reminder of her dear father, Johnny Yanzsa, who crafted the display.

The Palmerton man, who owned a market on Lehigh Avenue, created the gift for his daughter’s first Christmas after she married Jack in 1976.

The Jesus, Mary and Joseph figures plus the three wise men were bought at Young Jewelers in Palmerton. The wooden camels were made in Israel.

“The blue angels were inherited from my Aunt Mimi. The assorted ceramic figures were collected by me and added throughout the years. The stuffed donkeys are remnants of my childhood,” Woginrich said.

The background of the setting is an open milkweed pod that mimics angel hair snow.

“The entire collection is a one-of-a-kind hodgepodge with many additions throughout the years, including the picture of my children,” Woginrich said.

Jean Condly of Lehighton also proudly displays a stable that her father, John Ricciardi, crafted out of plywood in the early 1960s.

He added a light to illuminate the plaster figure and the wooden camel that was carved in Israel.

“He made three, one for himself, me and my brother,” Condly said.

When she puts it on the fireplace mantel each year, it reminds her of her father, whose hobby was carpentry. “It has sentimental value to see it on the shelf each Christmas and think of Christmases past,” she said.

John Zanders has a family heirloom. “This manger was given to my mother by her mother on the day I was born, Nov. 15, 1960.” Zanders said. “Years later my mom gave it to me. It is now 62 years old.”

Julie Stokes of Tamaqua and her mother still proudly display a manger that was a gift to my mother back in 1980.

“My aunt Kathy hand-painted all of the pieces to the manger,” Stokes said.

Patrice Kohan displays a manger scene that was originally her grandmother’s, Marina Camerini.

Kohan said she lived on Hunter Street in Tamaqua and a woman named Lillian Gluck made one for her and a few families on the street. She describes the hand-painted pieces as “vibrant yet rustic.”

“My aunt Mary Camerini was generous and gifted it to me. I’m forever grateful to have this in the family,” Kohan said.

“For me it’s a priceless reminder of the reason we celebrate Christmas. Every year I get a such a comforting feeling when I slowly unwrap each piece and admire their beauty. The Camerini Christmas on Hunter Street was filled with family, food and that intangible, love and respect.”

All crafted with love

Danielle Evanko’s dad, Richard “Slim” Evanko Sr. handcrafted a full-size display on Center Street in Nesquehoning more than 30 years ago.

“He decided how big he wanted it, made his measurements and cuts and created it,” she recalls. “Before Nesquehoning had a McDonald’s there used to be white birch trees that grew there. He cut them down then cut them in half and nailed them to the manger to hold the straw in place.”

He bought the figurines at the former Ice City in Allentown.

This year Danielle and her fiance Andrew helped to put up the display.

“He showed/taught us how it gets put together, step by step. I wondered how it did all these years by himself, because it wasn’t an easy task. Locals always look forward to seeing it up,” she said.

Evanko is giving the display to Danielle and Andrew, who will carry on the tradition down the street in Nesquehoning.

Monroe Cressley of Lehighton built a manger last year out of boards from a pine tree on the farm he shares with his wife Nan.

“The boards for the manger were then cut from the log on our sawmill. This is our second year for our manger scene,” Nan said.

“We cut the boughs in the woods and added some stars inside and out,” she said.

She found the Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus statues on an online bid board and drove to Shamokin to buy the three Wise Men she found on Marketplace. Inside, she has an Avon set displayed. Behind this one is a Crown of Thorns plant signifying the one Jesus wore on his head when he hung from the cross. This plant was grown from a clipping of a plant that was close to 100 years old.

When Vern Arndt’s wife Mary Ann bought a Nativity scene last year at Jerry’s For All Seasons in Dunmore, the Jim Thorpe man was commissioned to build a manger for it.

“I spoke to friends about it early in the year and late this past summer a good friend donated some old barn boards he had salvaged from a neighbor’s torn down barn. I designed a stable from pictures I found on the web around the dimensions of the nativity,” Arndt said.

The nativity is 36 inches high by 24 inches wide by 18 inches deep, so he planned to build the manger 4 feet high by 3 feet wide and 32 inches deep.

But he ran out of barn boards.

He stopped by the Behrens farm to ask Josiah Behrens for a few more boards from the downed shed.

“He readily agreed and I picked up what I needed to finish the manger Nativity scene,” Arndt said.

Ed Remaley of Lehighton was also commissioned to make a new manger to replace one his wife Chris had from Woolworth’s store.

The new one, crafted from mahogany leftover from a new porch, took about eight hours to make.

Chris found the figurines at Country Junction. “I thought they were a perfect match,” she said.

Susan Stidham of Lehighton asked her husband Pete to make a stable from old wood and the roof is bark from tree branches.

She has a collection of several nativity sets, including a large lighted outdoor set with a stable built by her husband.

“The nativity set means Christmas to me,” she said.

Mike Czap of Little Gap made a new manger about seven years ago from materials he had on hand in his woodworking shop and from walking around in the woods to gather branches and twigs.

“He said he wanted to make it look as realistic as he could to what a stable may have looked like during the time when Christ was born,” his wife Kathy said.

“The manger represents the true meaning of Christmas to us. The coming of Christ to earth as a baby on that Christmas morning many, many years ago. God sent us His son to suffer and die on the cross for our sins. We can thank Him by accepting His free gift of salvation and living our lives for Him,” Kathy added.

Special treasures

Lottie Hager of Summit Hill still has a Popsicle stick built manger her son Thad made during the Christmas season 30 years ago when he was 10 years old and a 5th grade student at Our Lady of the Valley school in Lansford.

His teacher then was Sister Maureen St. Anne.

“It is a very simple manger, constructed of a few broken Popsicle sticks and figures of Mary, Joseph, and of course baby Jesus, a lamb, and two other figures. I always wondered if those two figures represented the Wise Men and if they did, what happened to the third one?” she said.

“It is a very plain and rough looking manger, just like the first one so many years ago. But this simple piece of artwork, done by a child, warms my heart and soul,” she said.

Likewise, Jordan Cook of Franklin Township has a Nativity scene her dad Tod made from Popsicle sticks in Cub Scouts in 1975 from Pack 4 in Scranton. It’s a family treasure.

Natasha Yurchak of Nesquehoning collects moose so why not a moose nativity set?

This manger was purchased as a gift from her boss.

“Honestly, it was in my Amazon cart, saved for later because I couldn’t justify purchasing it myself, but they didn’t know that,” said Yurchak, whose dog’s middle name is also moose.

“The manger set now sits each Christmas season on my dining room buffet along with a few other special Christmas trinkets I have collected. It’s definitely my favorite part of unpacking all of the Christmas decorations,” she said.