Nearly 100 nativity sets from around the world decorate Utah home

EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah — Terry and Dixie Johnson display almost 100 different nativity sets inside their Eagle Mountain home — each with a story about the country it comes from and how they got it.

They collected the sets during their travels around the world, the Daily Herald reported.

“People will say, ‘Which is your favorite one?’ and each time it’s a different one,” Dixie said.

Terry’s job in the Air Force meant plenty of traveling for the couple.

“The only place we haven’t been is Australia,” Terry said. “We’ve flown over it.”

“We are going someday,” Dixie said.

“And we haven’t been to the Antarctic,” Terry added.

Their roles as missionaries for the Mormon church took Terry to Finland and Dixie to France and Belgium.

Dixie says she insisted on getting a nativity set in each new place before going home.

“Each one, as we think about them and remember the place that we got them, brings back fun memories of people we know, places we went and things we did,” she said. “They are all just really special to us. That’s what’s so neat about our collection — they all mean something.”

One display was carved out of fish bones from Honduras, and another was found hidden in what was formerly known as East Germany.

“This is one that someone had hid for the 40 years of communism in East Germany,” Terry said.

“That is really unique because someone had managed to keep that for the whole 40 years,” he added. “It’s a pretty amazing little piece.”

The Johnsons set out their collection during the holidays.