Plenty of room in these inns

PROVO — The windows were washed clean when the displays first went into the storefront windows in Provo.

Now there are fingerprints and nose prints on the glass, said storefront galleries director Raquel Smith Callis, evidence that people are coming to see the Nativity scenes on display for the Provo Downtown creche Exhibit.

It's a creche exhibit that almost didn't happen. The collector who was going to put it on became ill and pulled out, Callis said.

That threw the Provo Downtown Alliance into a tailspin. They considered cancelling the show, but local residents were already calling in asking about this year's plan.

"I thought, 'the show must go on,' " Callis said.

So she began working the phone to see how many creches she could round up on short notice. The Provo Arts Council also pitched in.

The result is a display with more than 100 interpretations from around the world of the birth of Jesus Christ in half a dozen downtown storefront windows.

An entire model city of Bethlehem came from the George and Ellen Buchert family of Provo. Other creches came from small local collections.

"It was difficult for people to give up their creches (for the display)," Callis said. Many of them came from "a friend of a friend of a friend."

Among them were 85 from collector Holly Zenger of Midway, representing as many countries and various time periods.

Zenger is a founding member and president of the Friends of the creche, a national organization. She organized the Midway creche display held earlier this month that draws about 8,000 visitors. She and her husband, Jack, have collected creches for 30 years. She puts them in exhibits every year and has done so for the past 18 years.

Among the displays are some unusual ones by non-Christian artists who knew only a little about the birth of the Son of God. In one creche, the Christ is displayed as a baby girl, wearing a pink dress.

Other creches include:

• A carved and painted wood display from India with animals such as dogs and camels.

• A Peruvian Nativity aboard a boat with llamas and the Christ child wearing a native skirt.

• From Nepal, a scene carved from cornstalks with the figures wearing regional dress.