Nativity Scenes in Switzerland

Three cultural areas

The lines aren’t drawn by government boundaries but by culture, and they roughly follow the languages:

In real life the styles mix (you’ll find santons in Zurich and wooden figures in Geneva), but each region’s main style is still easy to spot.

French-speaking Switzerland

Here, nativity scenes look a lot like those in France, with plenty of Provençal santons, either imported or brought back from trips to the South of France. Local Christmas markets often sell them.

What makes the region different is the setting. An Alpine backdrop comes naturally here, so a nativity in French-speaking Switzerland often puts Mediterranean santons in a mountain landscape. Our page on styles usually advises against that kind of mix, but here it works, because it’s done openly and has been for a long time: the scenery is local, the figures come from elsewhere, and nobody pretends otherwise.

German-speaking Switzerland and the Alps

This is the style described on our Germany & Austria page: carved wooden figures, chalets and rocks, bigger figures and fewer of them.

Woodcarving is still practiced in several valleys, especially in the Bernese Oberland (around Brienz) and Graubünden. The pieces are usually simpler than in Tyrol, with less paint and more bare wood.

You’ll also find Krippenwege here, nativity trails you follow on foot through a village. For places to visit, see where to see nativity scenes in Switzerland.

Ticino

South of the Alps, the tradition is Italian: the presepe, clay figures, scenery built up in tiers, and lots of living nativities in the villages.

A good lesson for builders: the presepe is all about height and perspective, while the Alpine nativity is about slopes and snow. Two completely different approaches, just 50 miles apart.

One more variable: denomination

Switzerland has historically Catholic regions and historically Protestant ones, and you can see the difference in how they treat the nativity scene.

In Reformed (Protestant) cantons, religious images were long treated with more caution, so the home nativity there is often simpler or more recent. In Catholic cantons (Valais, Fribourg, Central Switzerland, Ticino), it matters as much as it does in southern France or Austria.

You see this all over Europe, but it’s especially clear in Switzerland, where Catholic and Protestant towns can be just a few miles apart.

The calendar

• Advent: the four-candle wreath, Advent calendars, and setting up the nativity.
• December 6: Saint Nicholas, celebrated differently from region to region. In German-speaking Switzerland, Samichlaus comes by with his dark-robed helper, Schmutzli.
• December 24: the big night in most of the country, with dinner, presents, and Baby Jesus laid in the manger.
• January 6: Epiphany, with the galette des Rois (king cake) in the French-speaking west and the Dreikönigskuchen, a ring of sweet rolls with a little king hidden inside, in the German-speaking part.
• February 2: Candlemas ends the season where the custom is kept.