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Writer's pictureNeil Allen

Baby Jesus Brought Me to Bethlehem part 2

Margo Dixon


Following Christmas of 1964, I returned to the Smith College campus and found that all Christmas items in the gift shop were half price.  Among those half price sales items was a lovely Nativity that was so very different from the one in the Met in New York that I had to have it!  Joseph in a derby hat, Mary and her paper halo with gold polka dots, the shepherdess with a scarf, wooden sheep painted with flowers on their sides....just lovely!


For the next 45 years or so, every time I found a picture, figurine, ornament, book, card or other item depicting "The Nativity" -- that was on sale -- I had to have it!

When I married, in 1981, I married the son of a Presbyterian Minister, who was simply "over" Christmas decor, and wanted little or nothing to do with my Nativity collection.

It went down to the basement, where I add it to it surreptitiously over the next 30 years.


Fred had a series of strokes in 2010 and was moved to an assisted living facility. I knew I needed to be able to afford his housing as well as mine, and that my staying in Atlanta did not make that feasible.  Where would I go?  What would I do with all of the things in my three story house?  I decided to give myself six months to empty the house, put it on the market, and relocate.  I decided to start in the farthest corner of the basement, where "Baby Jesus" was located.  I began packing the nativity items into plastic bins.  Tens, hundreds, then many hundreds of Baby Jesi were discovered, lovingly wrapped up and boxed for storage.  I had no idea there were so many!  I did know that there were 100 tiny ones which fit on a tree with shelves that the janitor who worked in the school where I was Principal had created for me.  Those had been displayed from 1970 through 1980.


As I am marveling at the multiplying Jesi, the door bell rang.  It was a young man introducing himself as a realtor with a client wanting to purchase my house, sight unseen, because of its proximity to the finest public school in the city (NOTE:  should they not all be "the finest?").  He offered me half a million dollars for the house, with closing to be in January.  It was just after Thanksgiving.  I would have less than 6 weeks to empty the house.  I said there was no way I could do that!  I needed at least 3 months just to sort, rid, and pack up everything (thinking how many more Jesi there were than I had known!)


One week later, he came back with a better offer and the idea that I could rent from his buyers during January, February and March.


This was an offer I could not refuse!


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