'Away in (300-plus) mangers'
Local man puts his crèche collection on public display
Kristin Lukowski of The Michigan Catholic
Published November 24, 2006
Photo by Kristin Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic
Michael Whalen stands next to one of his favorite crèches, with a Native American theme. He's collected his crèches for more than 30 years and from countries all over the world. | Mount Clemens — For many visitors to downtown Mount Clemens, the Christmas season will start with Jesus — more than 300 representations of Jesus, to be exact.
Michael Whalen is sharing his 300-plus display of crèches, spanning many decades and countries all over the world, with anyone who wants to stop by over the next week. This year, the display is part of the Mount Clemens Christmas Market; for the past three years, his collection had been on display at St. Ronald Parish, Clinton Township.
His interest in collecting crèches started when his was a young boy, he said, getting an uncle to build a stable for him and then filling it with figurines from the local dime store. He started collecting seriously about 30 years ago, buying nativity sets from all over the world.
Whalen has been able to order a lot of the sets online, some from fair-trade cooperatives such as Ten Thousand Villages, but he has gone to Europe to buy some himself. He's also been known to commission traveling friends to keep an eye out for crèches where they visit.
While most are easily recognizable and in a more traditional setting, some are a bit more creative; a nativity set from India, for example, is made up of metal springs.
"Artists never seem to run out of ideas," he said. "You think you've seen everything, and then you see something new."
He pointed out that some areas with a small Christian population, such as Eastern Asia, don't put out many nativity scenes, but that makes the ones that do come out of those countries that much more collectible.
Photo by Kristin Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic
A nativity scene from New Mexico is one of more than 300 of the personal collection of Michael Whalen, on display through Dec. 2 in downtown Mount Clemens. | Whalen said he's lucky to have a four-bedroom house, which allows him to dedicate one room to his collection. "I've gotten to be an expert at packing," he joked.
Some nativity scenes are too beautiful to keep in boxes, he says, so he leaves several dozen out all year long, rotating them every year. Although his wife, Theresa, may complain the scenes take up too much space, she is often the first one to point a new set out to him, he said.
The crèches from countries such as Japan, Thailand and Indonesia have the features of the people from that area of the world. The materials used to make his collection of crèches run the gamut, from recycled glass to steel to the more traditional wood.
Whalen, of Clinton Township, said you can learn a lot about a culture by looking at a nativity set from that part of the world. For example, a set from Australia features aboriginal people, while in a Native American set, the gifts brought by the wise men are corn, a peace pipe and a bear skin — important things to that culture.
A set from Alaska features an Inuit Mary but a Russian Joseph, an owl in place of an angel, and a kayaker and polar bear as bystanders. A set from Maine features a crab shack for a stable, Jesus sleeping in a lobster trap, and gifts of a sack of potatoes and cranberries. "All things important to Maine become the gifts," Whalen explained.
In a display case are his more historic crèches, from the 1920s and 1930s, some from toy companies that are now out of business.
Whalen, who attends St. Paul of Tarsus, is also president of Friends of the Creche, a group dedicated to promoting the Nativity. The group, which meets at conventions across the country, began in 1999 in Bethlehem, Pa. It includes people of almost all Christian religions but who all have the love for the nativity in common.
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 Creche display
- Nov. 24-Dec. 2, noon to 7 p.m.
- 57 Macomb Place, near the Emerald Theater, downtown Mount Clemens
- Free-will offering to benefit the St. Ronald Parish chapter of the St. Vincent de Paul Society
- Part of the Mount Clemens Christmas Market, which includes more than 40 indoor artist stalls, musical presentations, food and more.
- For more information, call (586) 469-8666.
| Depending on what he finds and what the year's finances are like, he'll buy anywhere from three to 10 nativity sets a year.
His favorites are the one made in the European tradition, he said.
When he unpacks his scenes, he often thinks about what was going on in his life when he bought them. The Native American scene is one of his favorites, probably because he got it about the same time his daughter, now a freshman in college, was born.
He said the nativity scenes are a good way to kick off the Christmas season. "It's nice to be able to start with that focus," he said.
Lillian Skurda of Clinton Township, also a member of Friends of the Creche, said she visits Whalen's display every year. She said it's nice he's bringing the nativity back into the public eye.
When she's out and about, she keeps an eye out for nativity displays on blankets, dishes or anything she doesn't believe Whalen already has.
"They're really all fantastic," she said. "I can't say I like one over the other."
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