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SANTONS ON DISPLAY
Send us your santon photos and perhaps we will feature them here!!
Click on the photos to enlarge.
Our friend Contance Andrew's lovely Provençal Nativity has continued to grow, and she has had to split it up in different areas of her charming Baltimore City rowhouse. The manger has a spot of honor under the Christmas tree,
the Magi are on a table,
and the entire village comes to life on the mantle.
Both sides of the mantle are filled with the wonderful figurines. What a wonderful Nativity Scene, Constance! You should be as proud as your Ravi below!
Laurie Davis’ collection is one of the most beautiful we’ve ever seen. She has managed to create an outstanding Provençal Nativity Scene. Let her tell you about her astounding crèche in her own words:
"Setting up our village has become a cherished family tradition theat we share with children and grandchildren. We dedicate a table just for it every Christmas."
"All of our Santon collection has been purchased from Simply Treasures. Once I decided to take the first step, I researched options on the Internet and fell in love with those offered by Simply Treasures. I began collecting Santons in 2001 and naturally started with the nativity scene and characters, including animals, and many of the other key villagers described in books I have on Santon villages. To showcase the village, I built the stage myself out of paper maché. Each year we have added more characters, animals, buildings, scenes, and fixtures. Each year we are delighted to see our village become all the more interesting. We have over 100 ‘pieces’ in our village now."
"We place the nativity scene and characters in the center of our village and surround it with central characters, such as the Mayor, Bartholomew, the blind grandfather and grandson, and various animals. One side of the village is set up as the market, complete with Santon scenes and various shoppers."
"The other side of the village is set up as the common area of the village with washing fountains, various village people, priests, monks, gypsies, Vincent and Mireille, and others coming to see the nativity. On top of the mountain we place several village structures, buildings and the gypsy wagon. Climbing the mountain are the shepherd in mistral wind and woman with a bundle. Behind the mountain, we have the sea, various fishermen, and a tower. Past that we have the field where animals graze, winemakers and basket weavers do their work, and men play boules."
"As you can see from the photos, I may have to buy a bigger table with my next order of Santon figures! Nonetheless, we would not miss the joy of adding to and setting up our collection every year.”
We'd also like to show the magnificent collection of Hope Wright whose Provençal Nativity scene features full-sized 25-centimeter Dressed santons. She has quite a lovely collection and a passion for santons that she shares with us below.
"This scene is set up as if it were early on Christmas morning. Baby Jesus is in his manger and the Ravi has just arrived, with the shepherds close behind. The rural folk are on their way into the village. The villagers have just heard the commotion of people arriving; some are in the streets on their way to see what is happening while others haven't yet left their shops. The Magi are still on a hill outside the town."
“I collected a few santon figures, thinking they were dolls that represented a hobby I personally enjoy, without knowing they had a religious meaning. I also collect folk-art nativity sets, and learned that santons are part of the Provencal crèche scene when I attended the Friends of the Crèche convention in 2003. I immediately searched for the Holy Family and Magi. Since then, I've been looking for the stories and the figures and add quite a few every year."
"This year I decided it was time to locate figures to tell the ‘stories’ I knew about, to "complete" my figures. Although I know there are always going to be more figures I could add, I feel that at this point I have a good representation of the different occupations from early France and the different gifts that the figures carry to present to the Baby. I added the buildings two years ago, and although they could stand some more work, they are presentable. I'm not sure how much more, if any, scenery elements I will add, this already takes 4 tables for the display and I don't think any more would really present the story. I will probably try to add a backdrop that shows the mountains, someday.”
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