The Village of Hodgeville had an influx of travellers looking to check out the nativity collection on display.

The "Night Jesus Was Born" Nativity Display takes over the village's community hall for three days, each year during the holidays.

This year was a return to form for the event, which had to be postponed during the pandemic. Almost 1,000 different versions of the nativity scene, depicting baby Jesus in the manger being visited by the three wise men, were on display this year. 

Helping set up the event was Anne Barkman, who has been helping set up the displays for 14 years now.

"People came from many different towns and villages from around here," said Barkman. "We had good attendance on Friday, which was kind of an iffy day because the weather always plays havoc with some of that, but we had a good turn out and Saturday was great. Sunday, people came from all over the place and we had great attendance."

Hundreds if not thousands of folks visited across the three days the displays were open to the public, having been begun being set up nearly a week prior. Admission to the event was free, with their being food and drinks also available free of charge.

These displays can mean a lot of things to many different people. For many though, they represent the origin of their faith's most beloved holiday.

"We just come together with the rest of our group that organizes the event, and we just feel that we want to just bring in the real reason why we celebrate Christmas," said Barkman. "We don't want to be harsh on anybody else, but we also want to be able to just show why we think that we want to celebrate this time of the year." 

All the different nativity sets are donated by people in and around the Hodgeville area. Some folks come in to set their own up, while volunteers like Barkman take donated sets and get them ready themselves.

"We are so grateful and so thankful for all the volunteers that helped in the setting up of the event," praised Barkman. "And those that donated baking for the event, as well as those that came and helped over the weekend to make the event the success that it was."