Church displays nativity scenes from around world

ARLINGTON — Roger Cooper has spent close to 50 years collecting miniature Nativity scenes all over the world.

Cooper, 68, got his first one in Mexico City back in the early ’70s while working as a research chemist for a multinational consumer goods corporation. It was a brightly colored earthenware set, and Cooper has since collected around 300 more, many of them while traveling as an international banker in North, Central and South America.

Born to British parents in Mexico City, Cooper saw that the Christmas celebration in predominantly Catholic Mexico revolved around the Nativity rather than Santa Claus or the Christmas tree.

“It’s really a centerpiece of people’s homes,” Cooper, retired from banking and living in Arlington, said in a phone interview. “It could be relatively small, it could be up to life size, it could be a couple of hundred pieces, even, all over a table.”

Picking up miniature Nativities on his travels allowed Cooper to bring back meaningful mementos that could easily fit in his suitcase. His collection includes pieces from Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russia, Spain and the U.S.

Cooper, who stays busy being involved in charities and theater production, said he continues to buy new Nativity scenes whenever he “sees something that’s different.” In fact, his latest purchase was an Austrian creation bought in the U.S. just in the middle of this month. About a fifth of his collection were pieces given by people who knows of his interest.

Fifty of his

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