Morristown manger mystery solved: Nativity scene will return in ’22

Creche on the Green, after Winter Storm Gail, Dec. 17, 2020. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
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Everyone’s had to make do without many things in 2021. On the Morristown Green, this was The Year Without a Crêche.

But the Nativity scene will be back next Christmas.

“I’m as disappointed as anyone else. I’ll make it happen next year,” promised Rob Sandelli, whose family quietly has supplied the manger for at least a half century.

Where the Nativity scene used to be on the Morristown Green. Dec. 17, 2021. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

When it failed to materialize on the southeast corner of the Green after Thanksgiving, the Trustees of the Morristown Green started hearing from the public, touching off a frantic search by Alice Cutler.

She is president of the Trustees, charged with overseeing this Revolutionary town square where General Washington’s troops paraded.

KEEPERS OF THE CRÊCHE: Rob and Kathryn Sandelli, pictured in 2017. Photo courtesy of the Sandellis.

The manger automatically appeared for so many generations, nobody ever bothered to record details about it. That went both ways.

“I didn’t even know who to contact,” said Sandelli, 57. “I mean, I’ve never really had to communicate with anybody. I just put it up. When the time came, I took it back down again.”

The East Hanover resident explained this was a hectic year for him, with health problems and the inheritance of a Pennsylvania farm. When the holidays rolled around, he discovered the crêche so badly deteriorated, he feared it would pose a safety hazard.

He said his attempts at hasty repairs were thwarted by supply chain issues wrought by the pandemic.

SAFE AND SOUND! Kidnapped toy soldier has been returned to Morristown police, Dec. 14, 2018. Photo courtesy of Morristown Police.
SAFE AND SOUND! Kidnapped Toy Soldier was returned to Morristown police, Dec. 14, 2018. Photo courtesy of Morristown Police.

This manger came from a kit. Sandelli intends to build a new one from scratch. Over the years, there have been at least four iterations, he said. Chicken wire fencing was added, to protect baby Jesus.

“We’ve had to replace Jesus probably about eight times in my life. People just snatch him out of the manger,” said Sandelli.

His late father, who worked for Morristown’s public works department before starting a masonry business, even tried withholding the figurine from the crêche until Christmas Eve, in hopes of keeping it safe.

(A life-sized Wooden Soldier also was abducted from the Green, in 2018. It was returned by the rueful kidnapper.)

A FAMILY TRADITION

Sandelli’s great-grandfather immigrated to Morristown from Italy. Until a few years ago, the family sold Christmas trees on Washington Street.

STILL A FAVORITE: Rocking horses at the Christmas Festival at the Morristown Green, Dec. 19, 2021. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

That operation provided trees and boughs that decorated the Green for decades at Christmas. The Sandellis also put up rocking horses, and plywood depictions of the Wise Men on their camels and Santa as drawn by 19th century Morristown illustrator Thomas Nast.

Rob Sandelli’s wife Kathryn, an artist, repainted the decorations each season, and family friend Oscar Gomez of Dover helped install the crêche.

The family stored everything on a Mendham farm, and later, with the National Guard, Rob Sandelli said.

in 2000, the Morristown Partnership took over the decorating, launching its annual Christmas Festival at the Morristown Green. But the nonprofit could not do religious symbols, Sandelli said, so his family continued providing the Nativity scene.

Artist Kathryn Sandelli with design for Mansion in May, preview, Feb. 1, 2017. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Artist Kathryn Sandelli with design for Mansion in May, preview, Feb. 1, 2017. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

When MorristownGreen.com posted a story about the missing manger, longtime resident Linda Carrington remembered the Sandellis.

She pointed Cutler to Kathryn Sandelli, a featured artist in 2017 at Mansion in May, at the Abbey in Morris Township.

Cutler was thrilled to connect the dots.

“Next year, the créche will return, better than ever,” she said. “I’m so happy. We’ll have to make a real splash next year.”

Rob Sandelli is looking forward to that. Christmas on the Green holds a special place in his heart.

“I love it,” he said. “I still love it to this day.”

TEMPORARY CRECHE: The Trustees of the Morristown Green installed this on Dec. 23, 2021, as a temporary replacement for the usual Nativity scene on the Green. Photo courtesy of Alice Cutler

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks to the Sandellis for many years of the Manger scene and especially the rocking horses enjoyed by several generations of my family, and thanks to you for this interesting article. I had no idea! I am so glad to see the rocking horses back and look forward to manger coming back next year. I have sent this to two of my friends who have Italian roots in Morristown, also to my kids. My dad was from an Irish “Dublin” family, the Mannings. I wish my grandchildren were nearby and could enjoy the Green as well.

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