Port Lavaca – As the holiday season hits the Lone Star State, you’ll find Port Lavaca native Veronica Koliba putting the finishing touches on one of her favorite nativity sets because when it comes to Christmas, “It’s the most important thing,” she says.
Then she moves on to the next one, then the next, and the next one. “We didn’t intend to do this,” said Veronica. “I would have no idea that I would’ve been collecting this many nativities five years ago.”
Veronica has a fondness for the figurines that make up the manger that depict the night Christ was born. “Artists are just so creative in depicting the Nativity that it was just inspiring,” said Veronica.
Inspiring enough to convince her to buy hundreds of nativity scenes in a few years and put them all on display at the old Red Barn in Port Lavaca. “This is a carved one from Schellenberg,” said Veronica. “Love the detail, and that’s why I put it on a carousel is so that you could see all the detail.”
This array of religious art came to be back in 2020 when Veronica wanted people from around the coast to bring their nativities to display together. Only problem is, no one answered the call. So Veronica decided to carry the cross herself and create this incredible collection on her own. “I grew up with two Catholic grandmothers that were very, very religious, very devout, and so it, I guess, set up my affinity for the Nativity,” explained Veronica. “I call it, That it was more about getting together and praising Jesus and not so much the material part of it. You may think, yeah, this is material, but I guess what I hope I bring to it is that I like my collecting and I like collecting, and then we just happen to have a place that everybody can come see this. That’s what I think of Christmas now is sharing my love for what I do, my vocation, I think of it now, or our vocation of collecting these things and bringing them to people that can see them all together.”
Finding a unique nativity is now an everyday undertaking and Veronica searches high and low, and on occasion has spared no expense. “Go to antique stores, thrift malls, go to a lot of estate sales, and so that’s how the collection grew, and about a hundred each year,” said Veronica. “That’s of my collection. We’re not counting pictures, puzzles and that kind of stuff. Plates, because we have plates and puzzles everywhere, but just nativities. Ones that can sit on a table. About 750. Yeah. Crazy.”
Hunting down these holiday sets can sometimes turn into an all day affair. “This one right here, we bought at Shiner Church Picnic back in September of ’21,” said Veronica. “Got there real early, spotted it, thought we have to have it, three heifers later that we bought. A tree skirt, another nativity, a ladies blouse that I just needed out of the way so we get to the next item. We waited 13 hours because we were there at 11:00, and it ended at midnight and it was the last item.”
From crystal and yarn to coke cans and recycled paper, many of these nativities are made with unique materials, including some rock-solid displays of faith. “What people expect when you hear nativity is that, oh, it’s Mary just looking down at baby Jesus, and we’ve got ones made of pinto beans, like I said, cinnamon bark, macaroni, just anything,” said Veronica.
Imagine trying to figure out how to display all these crazy and classical displays. “Well, I’ve known Joanna Gaines, but I try to get you different textures and colors and heights and stuff to get your eyes flowing a little differently,” said Veronica.
The themes of the nativities can be very interesting. Featuring gnomes, snow people, dogs and foxes, you just never know what you’ll find. There’s even nativity that takes a nod from the Lone Star State. ”It started with Mary, Joseph and Jesus and the Alamo,” said Veronica. “If anybody has a Nolan Ryan, Willie Nelson or George Strait I can have, I’d love to have them as the kings.”
“As much as I love tradition, that’s one of the things with the collection this big, you have to have something different to really keep people interested,” said Veronica.
You’ll also find nativities from across the world depicting cultures from across the world. And it’s that moment that you realize Christmas truly does bring a lot of the world together to celebrate a special moment from over 2000 years ago. “As much as I love tradition, that’s one of the things with the collection this big, you have to have something different to really keep people interested,” said Veronica. “I think that there’s enough art culture and religion in here in so many different representations of the Nativity that people, it includes everybody. Different artists, different cultures, different races, that it’s just a phenomenal expression of people’s artistry and their faith and spirituality.”
No matter where we are from in the world, there are few things that can bring us together like faith. It reaches the furthest corners of the globe and right here in the Lone Star State, it seems the star of Bethlehem would fit just fine in the Texas skies. “Yeah. It’s definitely just about the Nativity,” said Veronica.