Pauline Sjordal was 25 years old and a public health nurse in Connecticut in 1966 when she received a Christmas gift from her mother that’s as precious today as it was 46 years ago.

As she unwrapped the pieces, a lovely 17-piece ceramic Nativity set came to life.

Each piece had been painstakingly hand-painted with gold highlights.

To Sjordal’s delight, her mother had inscribed Christmas greetings and other sentiments on the bottom of each piece, some in English, some in Norwegian.

“Glade Jul.,” Norwegian for silent night, is etched on the bottom of one piece.

“The donkey says, ‘Merry Christmas,’” Sjordal noted, inspecting the bottom of that piece.

Sjordal’s Nativity set is one of about 400 that will be on display Thursday and Friday for the fourth annual Community Christmas Celebration at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kalispell.

There’s a family story to accompany each of the treasured displays.

Sjordal’s Nativity set reflects her strong Norwegian heritage on both sides of her family. It’s also the gift of a mother’s love for her daughter.

“Mom spoke fluent Norwegian and when she came to Montana, the Sons of Norway grabbed her up,” Sjordal recalled.

Her ancestors emigrated from Norway and settled in the Bottineau, N.D., area where her grandmother was born in 1885. Sjordal’s parents, Victor and Luella Sjordal, moved from Grand Forks, N.D., to Kalispell in 1975 when her father retired, and they were active in the Sons of Norway here.

“Dad used to make the lutefisk for the Sons of Norway dinners,” she remembered.

After this week’s display, Sjordal’s Nativity set will be showcased on the organ at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Kalispell for the remainder of the Christmas season. Each year she wraps each piece in surgical gauze to protect it as it’s stored until the next holiday season.

“I’ve never broken or chipped a single piece,” she said.

Michele Reese, director of public relations for the Kalispell Stake of the LDS Church, an area that stretches from Thompson Falls to Eureka, said many of the Nativity sets on display have been handed down from generation to generation.

“They’re all special and they belong to people who care about them,” Reese said.

The Community Christmas Celebration, organized and sponsored by the Kalispell Stake, has already become a holiday tradition.

“We just love starting the season with something sweet, real and peaceful,” Reese said.

Visitors can stroll through myriad tables with Nativity displays while Christmas music is performed by local musicians and vocalists. Some tables feature snow-globe Nativity scenes. The displays depicting the birth of Jesus Christ more than 2,000 years ago range in size from miniatures less than an inch tall to crèches with pieces up to 2 feet tall.

Planning for the annual event starts in August, and a troupe of 100 volunteers puts it all together. Security is provided around the clock for the two-day show. And the steadiest of hands set up the prized sets.

“We try to be exceptionally careful,” Reese said.

St. Francis of Assisi generally is credited with creating the first Nativity scene at Christmas in the year 1223. As the story goes, St. Francis filled a manger with hay and set up a live Nativity scene with animals and people near the village of Greccio, Italy, to remind the villagers of the true message of Christmas.

The hundreds of Nativity sets on display represent the work of artists from around the world. They’re offered for display by residents from the greater Flathead Valley area, as far south as Paradise and as far north as Eureka. Some crèche collectors share their collections for the event.

The display is open to the public from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday and 1 to 9 p.m. Friday at the LDS Church, 1380 Whitefish Stage Road.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.