Over 2,500 nativities on display in Washington

Mike Zahs says his collection of nativities may be the largest in the world, at over 2,536. It exceeds the current Guinness World Record holder by over 700. (Kalen McCain/The Union)

The nativities are depicted on every medium imaginable. This photo alone includes wood sets, bamboo figures, a mantle, a candle, a plate, several snow globes, a lantern and plenty of other materials. (Kalen McCain/The Union)

Zahs' first Nativity, a gift from his aunt in 1952, is featured with its original box. (Kalen McCain/The Union)

Zahs' nativities cover every available surface at the Washington Hills Bank. Some are even set up underneath display tables, with just as much care. (Kalen McCain/The Union)

WASHINGTON — Mike Zahs has set up his collection of nativities at Hills Bank in Washington, after days of organization. In total, the display includes 2,536 Nativity sets, originating from over 100 countries.

While Zahs had set up around a hundred of the items around the holidays in recent years, bank representatives said they started planning a full display as far back as 2019.

“Every year he’d bring new ones, and different ones that we hadn’t seen the year before, and so it was mentioned to him about putting up the whole collection,” said Commercial Banking First Vice President Janelle Johnson, who helped set up the display. "The bank’s happy to have it, it’s definitely unique and we look forward to having people in to look at it.“

Zahs said he began his collection in 1952 with a 25 cent Nativity from his aunt, which is included in the display with its original box. Once he started actively collecting, word spread, leading friends and students to bring him sets from around the globe, or donate family pieces they couldn’t maintain themselves.

"It just kept happening,“ he said. ”I have a lot of students that travel, and … I have been able to travel all over the world, so if I find a Nativity from, Ethiopia, that’s what I bring back. But I had somebody give me five on Monday that I didn’t have. So it just happens.“

Zahs claims that it’s the largest collection in the world. Guinness World Records pins that title to a collection of 1,802 sets housed in the Museo dei Sogni e Della Memoria in Feltre, Italy. The record, set in 2009, falls over 700 short of Zahs’ display.

While Zahs is a Christian and attends church regularly, he said his interest in the Nativity stemmed from its cultural relevance, not its religious implications.

The sets come from around the world, and vary wildly. One depicts the people with symbols of Judaism and Buddhism, another depicts three wise people as women, another has them traveling in a canoe, another contains a dolphin. Most match the skin colors to their own when making a Nativity, few depict Joseph holding the baby Jesus.

“It’s 2,500 different ways of interpreting the same story,” he said. “By doing this, I’ve studied it a great deal, and found that almost every single thing we put in a Nativity set would not have been there at the beginning. The stable that we envision was not possible at that time, biblically, there were no animals at the Nativity. The wise men came two years later.”

The collection also spans a staggering array of mediums. Items includes typical sets made of clay, bamboo, wood or cloth, to rare finds like gold etchings and figurines, to unusual pieces carved on eggshells, configured as puzzles, painted onto a turkey feather, printed on fridge magnets or shaped from barbed wire.

"Countries, you know, they make them out of what they have,“ Zahs said. ”(One) from Bangladesh is hand-split straw. I’ve got some from Haiti — they have next to no natural resources — and they carve theirs out of the side of oil drums with a hammer and chisel. There’s a lot of bamboo ones.“

The collection spans a sizable portion of history. The oldest is a relief of a carving made circa 1500. A more recent model is an assembly of LEGOS made by a child. Others fall everywhere in between.

Zahs said it would likely be his last year putting up a Nativity display at the bank. While he enjoys showing the collection, it takes a tremendous amount of work.

“I’m old, and I have worked on this display for five weeks,” he said. “I need to start thinking what ultimately happens to them, rather than keep going.”

While the sets typically return to a storage building in the offseason, Zahs said he wasn’t sure what he’d do with them after this year.

"I’d like to have it someplace where it can be displayed more often,“ he said. ”I don’t anticipate ever setting it up again … it can’t be up all the time, and certainly not here at the bank.“

The display stays up until Feb. 1, and officially opens to the public Dec. 5. Zahs said groups who contacted him in advance could arrange a program. The display is also featured in the Washington Chamber’s candlelight tour of homes Dec. 3 and 4.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com