Making A Scene At Christmas Organiser Fiona Tonkin said she and two other collectors have amassed the vast number of scenes from many countries.

“Between us we have about 400, maybe 450 nativities,” she said. “We probably cover about 60 or 70 countries in that.”

These scenes range in size and materials, putting on a diverse showcase.

“They range in size too, from minuscule, like a dolls house size, right up to quite large,” Ms Tonkin said.

“I’ve got one there that comes from South America that’s made out of potato crisp packets.

“We have two totally different ones that are called bullet nativities, one from Liberia and is AK-47 bullet shells.

“The other one is actually a World War II lead cased bullet and it’s been recast as a little nativity.”

The nativity scenes were made of materials including fabric, stone and wood.

Ms Tonkin said the event started five years ago after decades of collecting nativity scenes, which the collectors decided to display.

“We have acquired all the nativities over a period of 40 years,” she said.

“Suddenly we sort of looked at each other about five years ago and thought, ‘let’s spread the news … let’s start talking about something other than Santa Claus’.

“Let’s talk about where the story begins.”

The event will return for its third time in five years in Ballarat.

It has also been hosted in several other regional cities including, Shepparton two weeks ago and Canberra last weekend.

“It’s a very interesting experience and judging by the people at Shepparton, they were gobsmacked,” Ms Tonkin said.

Ms Tonkin said a gold coin donation was requested for the event, which will be hosted at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens’ Robert Clark Horticultural Centre.

The event runs Friday, 10am to 4.30pm, Saturday, 9am to 4.30pm, Sunday, 9am to 7:00pm, and Monday, 9am to 4.30pm.

READ MORE