For Ashley Marek, nativity scenes are more than just a part of holiday decorating. She has been collecting them since she was 10 and now owns 30 unique nativity scenes.

As a child, Marek played with her mother’s nativity scene figurines in her hometown of Absaraka, N.D., a town of just 19 people about 35 miles northwest of Fargo.

At age 10, she received her first nativity scene—a catalogue set with cherub-like angels. The set caught her eye and it ended up under her family’s Christmas tree that year. The following year she received another one, and the tradition continued from there. “Sometimes we’d go to a garage sale in the summer and my mom would snatch one up for me,” Marek said.

After Thanksgiving, Marek displays 15 to 20 nativity scenes. She keeps them out until the first or second week of January, when she stores them with the rest of her Christmas decorations for the remainder of the year.

She looked for nativity scenes while studying abroad in Bilbao, Spain for a semester, but had no luck. However, on a weekend trip to Lourdes, France, she found what is now her favorite—a small pewter and gold-tinted set of three figurines. She found it nestled among rosaries and prayer books in a gift shop. It cost about $20 U.S. Each three-inch figurine is detailed and well crafted. "Plus, it came in a cute box," Marek said.

Marek calls Lourdes a “big religious Mecca for Catholics.” “There were so many religious items and goods there,” Marek said. Four nativity scenes from Peru add to her international collection. She spent just over a month there in 2004 doing volunteer work. She volunteered at a medical clinic and did tutoring, translating and organizing for a dentist to visit local citizens. One scene is made of a small hollowed gourde from Lima, Peru, which she bought for $3 at an open street market among jewelry and other knick-knacks.

“It was kind of out of place, but I fell in love with it and had to buy it,” Marek said. The nativity scene has llamas carved on the outside of the gourde and the miniature figurines inside are made of hand-painted wood. She bartered with the woman running the table down to 25 soles, equivalent to about $8 U.S. At first, the Peruvian shopkeeper didn’t want to part with the piece, but when Marek feigned lack of interest she waved her back and promptly started wrapping up the scene in her daughter’s old homework.

Finally, while at the Lima airport, Marek found a great way to spend her extra money—she bought six tiny nativity scene ornaments, one for each member of her family. Each is painted a little differently, but all in vivid colors. Her's is about an inch across. “They remind me of little teacups,” Marek said. “There are a lot of religious idols everywhere in South America … you try to buy a nativity scene here in July—good luck.”

Next to the miniature nativity scene is the smallest of her collection: another ornament that her niece Sydney gave her. “That is a very tiny sheep,” Marek said, pointing at one of the figurines. “It’s not necessarily the religious significance of it; they’re just cute.”

One year, Marek’s sisters received good quality nativity scenes for Christmas. Her brother made mangers for them, which inspired her to make a manger for one of her own scenes.

Another two nativity scenes double as music boxes; the figurines dance to “Silent Night” and “O Holy Night.”

In addition to her family giving her nativity scenes at Christmas, the tradition of giving each other Christmas ornaments has also developed. While in Spain, she collected mussel shells off the beach near her apartment, brought them back to the United States, scrubbed them clean and made nativity scene ornaments out of them. She added straw, a cow, the Virgin Mary and a gold star to each.

“Christmas is such a happy time for my family. My siblings are a lot older than me, so I pretty much grew up on my own. But at Christmas, everyone would come home and our house would be full of life and excitement,” Marek said.

"Christmas is a very special time for me, and this is something directly associated with Christmas.”

Marek is certain her collection will grow in the years to come. “The only thing that makes me sad is, I don’t have a big house to display them in,” she said.