Nutcracker Village to host 375-set nativity crèche collection
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STEUBENVILLE -- What started as a childhood hobby for George Dvorsky has grown into an e passion, one that he will soon be sharing with Steubenville and visitors to its nutcracker village.
Dvorsky is the owner of a traveling collection of 375 nativity crèche scenes of various shapes and sizes, all depicting the birth of Jesus. The collection, being housed in the former Robinson Music Co. building at 141 N. Fourth St., is a new addition to this year's Steubenville Nutcracker Village, which will open on Nov. 21 and run until Jan. 6.
"Every time I'm in a different city (or) different country, I look for them," Dvorsky said of his collection, which boasts crèches from countries including Spain, Peru, Tanzania, Sweden and the Czech Republic.
The collection's multitude of boxes took a half hour to unload with the help of about six people on Oct. 9. Everything fit into one rental truck, Dvorsky said, and a day of staging readied the collection for its eventual perusal.
Dvorsky, who has been collecting creches for 45 years, said his love for them began when he was a boy.
"When we would go to church on Christmas morning," Dvorsky said. "My mom would take my siblings out to the car, and my dad would take me down to the front of the church and I'd just sit there and stare at the creche, so they'd have to drag me out. It was just a passion, basically, since then."
Dvorsky's first piece for the collection is a three-piece pewter arch, which will be among the sets on display. Other displays range from "matchbox" size to as much as a foot tall, he said. Some he has acquired himself, and others have been given to him as gifts, including one bequeathed to him by a friend from Boston after she died.
Each creche has its own unique style, Dvorsky said, adding, "I see them as works of art."
Eclectic, beautiful and sometimes wacky creche interpretations are portrayed by rubber ducks, Charlie Brown, Coca-Cola bottles, car parts and reindeer. Two sets were crocheted and embroidered respectively by Dvorsky's mother, and two others Dvorsky stitched and beaded himself.
Another set is Dvorsky's only American-made one -- manufactured by Hestia Creations in Marblehead, Mass. -- and it is composed of 100 individual pieces. The set is updated with new pieces every year, Dvorsky said, and it contains famous figures including St. Teresa of Calcutta, Pope Francis, St. Nicholas, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and St. Valentine.
"I can narrow it down to about 10 for my favorites," Dvorsky said. "Because I have so many now, I really have to be picky. ... I want something that would be really unique."
Nancy Sweeter, a friend of Dvorsky, helped to unload the boxes of creches. Sweeter commented, "For those of us unpacking, every box is like a present."
The traveling collection has been displayed in Dallas for nine years and in Bethlehem, Pa., for two years. Bethlehem was the collection's first display location, and it was so popular that Dvorsky was asked to come back again. However, he said, this is the first year the collection has been displayed since the coronavirus pandemic.
Dvorsky said he became aware of the Steubenville Nutcracker Village and decided to bring his collection there through a mutual friend between himself and Mark and Gretchen Nelson, co-chairs of Nelson's of Steubenville and members of the Steubenville Cultural Trust, which hosts the nutcracker village.
Instead of writing Christmas cards each year, Dvorsky said, he creates 12-song Christmas playlists of MP3 files and sends them out with stories of what each song means to him -- it's a sort of musical Advent calendar, called the "12 Days to Christmas," Dvorsky said.
One artist featured on his playlist, Debbie Rusciolelli, is a college friend of Gretchen Nelson. When Dvorsky once talked to Rusciolelli about his collection, she had told Dvorsky that the Nelsons would probably love to showcase it in the nutcracker village.
"I came out in August and met (the Nelsons)," Dvorsky said. "I saw this space and thought this was perfect because of how rustic it is. And this was an old music store, which suits me perfectly."
Originally from Erwin, Pa., outside of Pittsburgh, Dvorsky is a professional singer and Broadway performer, having acted in shows including "The Scarlet Pimpernel," "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," "Passion" and "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."
Trained at Carnegie Mellon University, Dvorsky said, "I was playing football in ninth grade and broke my arm. I needed something else to do, so I joined the choir to fill up my time and found that I could sing, and the rest is history."
Dvorsky decided to set up the collection a month in advance to fit his busy schedule. Included in that schedule is a six-week Broadway review at the Good Theater in Portland, Maine, which will close two days before the nutcracker village opens.
Gretchen Nelson noted that this year marks the 800-year anniversary of the first nativity creche, created by St. Francis of Assisi using live animals in Greccio, Italy, in 1223. Nelson added that the creche collection will have regular weekend hours and will be open by request.
Other events slated for the nutcracker village include a children's lantern parade on Dec. 3, a nutcracker ball on Friday at Leonardo's Coffeehouse and much more. A list of activities is provided on steubenvillenutcrackervillage.com.
Until Nov. 21, when the nutcracker village is officially unveiled for viewers on opening day, the Robinson Music Co. building will have tape over its windows to hide the collection from those wishing to sneak an early peek inside. Nelson said she is grateful to Rocco Palumbo, one of the building's owners, for housing the collection.
Nelson said of the creches, "I'm sure people will be very excited to see these. There's a lot of really unique nativities here."