ADVENT CALENDAR 2025

December 6

BYERS’ CHOICE NATIVITY

Joyce Byers, Byers’ Choice
Chalfont, PA
Plaster, wire, clay, tissue paper, cloth
2014 and 2015

This Nativity was designed by Joyce Byers, whose well-known Carolers are produced by the family-owned Byers’ Choice company in Chalfont, Pennsylvania. The family endeavor began in the late 1960s, when Joyce made her first Carolers as a table decoration. The next year they were given as gifts, with some being offered to a local store. They proved to be very popular, and today over forty artisans are employed by the company.

Each figure begins with a wire frame in plaster. The bodies are then built up with tissue paper. Heads are sculpted for each figure, and plaster molds are made from them. Artisans then press clay into the molds to create the heads and paint the faces by hand. The Byers family displays their collection of Nativities from around the world in a special gallery in the Byers’ Choice Christmas Museum, at their company headquarters in Chalfont.

Glencairn Museum’s World Nativities exhibition runs from November 28, 2025, to January 25, 2026. Visit us at Follow the Star: A 2025 Advent Calendar.