Christmas Boutique Will

Have A Special Addition This Year

By Shannon Hicks

St Rose of Lima will bring back its “You Can Never Have Enough Christmas” boutique the weekend of December 3–5, featuring a wide selection of Christmas decorations and gifts in many price ranges and interests.

In addition, this year’s boutique will offer “Bethlehem Night,” a presentation of crèches owned by Monsignor Robert Weiss.

Boutique hours will be Friday from 6:30 until 10 pm, Saturday 10 am to 7 pm, and Sunday 8 am to 2 pm.

Friday night will be a special gala event, with a $10 admission charged and refreshments served for the first shoppers of the weekend along with admission to the special exhibition of crèches.

Admission to the boutique on Saturday and Sunday is free. There will, however, be a fee of $5 charged for entry to “Bethlehem Night,” or $20 for a family of five or more.

Crèche Collection

“Bethlehem Night” will offer nearly 50 crèche scenes from the personal collection of Monsignor Weiss.

“They range from fairly small ones to some significantly large ones,” Monsignor Weiss said recently. Parishioners from St Rose were invited to borrow the crèches, take them home, and create a scene to accompany the display of each collection that reflects each one’s ethnicity. Collections have come from Africa, France, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, and across the United States.

“I don’t really know what they’re going to look like when they come back” for the boutique, he said. “I gave the collections to [parishioners] and they’re going to do their thing.”

Members of St Rose from different backgrounds, “from an art teacher to marketing executive,” said Monsignor Weiss, accepted the invitation to design a crèche background.

The monsignor has been collecting his crèches for about 30 years. While a few remain on view within the parsonage on Church Hill Road year-round, the majority are stored away when the holidays are finished, and some have been stored for years.

“I haven’t even looked at some of these in years,” admitted Monsignor Weiss, who said he began thinking about a presentation like this a few years ago. “I thought it would be nice to pull them all together. It will keep the real meaning of Christmas here, while also offering a new twist to our boutique.”