Nativity Traditions Around the World

A world tour of traditions

Each tradition tells the same story in its own way:

• Provence surrounds it with a whole village: the tradespeople, the old folks, the Bohemian.
• Italy turns it into theater, and Naples fits a whole city into it.
• Poland builds it as architecture: the szopka recreates Kraków’s landmarks in shiny cardboard and foil.
• Germany and Austria carve it in wood and set it in the mountains.
• Latin America fills it with local plants and animals, and sometimes with a village that looks just like home.
• Catalonia adds a sense of humor: a cheeky squatting figure hidden in the scenery, a custom that goes back centuries.

None of them is more authentic than the others. They all do what Greccio did in 1223: make the story real with what’s around you. And in the United States, where immigrants brought all of these traditions with them, you can find many of them in churches, museums and family homes.

What changes from country to country

Four things change from place to place, and they’re what surprise travelers most.

When the presents arrive

In much of the Spanish-speaking world, the Three Wise Men bring the presents on January 6, so Epiphany is a bigger day than Christmas itself. In Belgium, the Netherlands and nearby countries, Saint Nicholas plays much of that role on December 6. So the nativity doesn’t fit into the family calendar the same way everywhere.

The characters

You’ll only find the ravi in Provence, and the caganer in Catalonia and a few neighboring regions. The Neapolitan tavern characters are unique to Naples. The core is the same everywhere: the Holy Family, the ox and the donkey, the shepherds and the Kings. Everything else is local.

The materials

Painted clay in Provence, terra-cotta and fabric in Naples, carved wood in the Alps, cardboard and foil in Kraków, and plaster or resin for many modern sets, including most nativity sets sold in America. The material matters: it affects the size, the price, how fragile the figures are and how you handle them.

How long it stays up

Some families take it down after Epiphany, others on Candlemas, February 2, traditionally the end of the Christmas cycle. The details are in when to put up the nativity.

What never changes

Three things stay the same, wherever you go:

1. The stable is poor

   No tradition shows a comfortable birth. Poverty is where the story starts, and it’s what Francis of Assisi wanted people to see.

2. The village is there

   In one form or another: the Provençal village, the streets of Naples, the landmarks of Kraków, the Alpine hamlet, the Pennsylvania putz town. The scene is always connected to everyday life.

3. The nativity is built over time

   It goes up a little at a time, fills with figures, then comes down. A nativity that appears fully set up on December 1 and disappears on the 26th doesn’t follow any tradition at all.

Pages by region

What’s missing here

Quite a lot, and we’d rather be upfront about it.

This site started with French research and the Provençal tradition, the one we know best. The pages above stick to what’s well documented and stop where guesswork would begin. Here’s what’s still missing:

• regional traditions within each country listed;
• nativity traditions from many parts of Africa, Lebanon and the Indian Ocean, which we know exist but on which we have no reliable material, and the many American traditions that deserve more space than they have here so far;
• family customs, which aren’t written down anywhere but are what keeps this tradition alive.