folklore assignment

Sarah Joanna Swann Dayton, Idaho

July 21, 2015 “Nativity Collection” Folk Object Informant:

Sarah is my sister-in-law. She was raised in Mesa, Arizona and now lives in Cody, Wyoming with her husband and three children. Sarah is 31 years old. She is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Sarah is a nurse and a stay-at-home mom. She loves to spend time with her children.

Context:

Sarah was visiting her mother-in-law for the summer in-between moving. We went into a bedroom to talk in a quieter environment because there were many grandchildren playing around the house. She began to tell me how she started her collection. She told me that the different nativities are set up the first week of December and stay up for the entire month. Some nativities are displayed on a table while others are on a shelf. There is a specific nativity that her children can play with. After talking about her collection, Sarah pulled out her Ipad and found pictures of her nativity collection and her great aunt to show me.

 

Text:

Ok, so nativities became like my huge collection obsession. I’ve got lots of them. I get at least

one or two every single year um and the reason we started doing this is my my grandparents live

far away. So I never got to interact with them but my great aunt lived just a city further away

from us. So for every Christmas we’d go to her house and she has collected nativities since her,

when she moved out. This is my grandfather’s baby sister. The only one still alive out of all the

siblings and so she collected and collected nativities so a huge part of my Christmases were

going to her house. We would get a pair of pajamas and we would act out the nativity and eat

dinner and all surrounding everywhere were nativities [used hand gestures to show around the

room] and I mean, I think she ended up with a thousand nativities. This woman had a lot of

nativities. Big huge ones, teeny tiny itty bitty ones[held hands far apart and close together to

show size] all over and some you could play with most of them you don’t touch cause they were

glass but this is one of my very best Christmas memories is looking at my grandma’s nativities.

She would collect them from all over the world whenever they went somewhere they found a

nativity and brought it back. And then everyone found out about her collection and then when

anyone else in the family went anywhere, they got her a nativities. She has so many and so in

when we first got married I said I want nativities, let’s get nativities and we started collecting

nativities as a reminder of my great aunt who I never called her my great aunt she was my aunt

grandma and her husband was my uncle papa. And so they were my stand in grandparents when

we couldn’t go visit mine. Even though I was her great niece, she treated me just like one of her

grandkids. All of those second cousins were just like my first cousins, I spent lots and lots of

time with them. I don’t have any of her nativities yet. I have asked for some but she is still alive

so she hasn’t given anyway. Um I don’t care which one I get, even if it is the smallest one of her

nativities.

Texture:

Sarah was excited to talk about her collection of nativities. While talking she was animated and used some hand gestures to reference size. As Sarah spoke about her great aunt’s nativities, there

was a smile on her face and it almost seemed as if she was taken back in time to when she was younger at Christmas time looking at the nativities on the shelves.

Samantha Swann Utah State University

ENGL 2210 Professor Lynne S. McNeill

Summer 2015