New to the Forum

[dvdstphns]

I am David Stephens. My family and I live in Chandler, Arizona USA. I purchased our first Fontanini set in 2002, which was my wife and my first Christmas together. If I remember correctly, we saw the scene with a large discount at a mall (possibly a Dillards). The stable was small, but it came with the Holy Family.  I didn't really see it as anything "special" for us at the time. We saw it as a good quality nativity scene that would go well in our home. We purchased several pieces, but I don't really remember where we got them or why. We began by displaying them on top of our piano. It seems that perhaps our 2nd year, we purchased the vineyard watchtower and additional pieces.  We purchased a couple of pieces each year. We kept adding to the set, but we're really "collecting" at that point. In 2011, during a trip to Italy, I found a shop that was selling Fontanini figures at a significant discount. We were especially in need of animals, so I purchased several during that trip. That was probably the year that I became a collector. In 2013, we returned to Italy and I went to the same shop, where I purchased more figures (but the discount was not as good). We also went to Lucca, hoping to find a shop there that had some discounted pieces, but we only saw a few scenes there and no discounts. When we came home, I decided to make this a new passion. In the past year, I had sold my entire sports collection, so I needed a new obsession. I began purchasing several auctions on eBay and some of the well known Fontanini shops. I also purchased a collection that I saw on Craigslist in the Phoenix area. That collection included some houses that she had made and some cliff landscape. That gave us the idea to "go big" with our scene. I continued to purchase through the holiday season and purchased collections from a church in Denver, a family's collection in St. Louis and another collection from Washington DC. Our next door neighbor has an AMAZING Christmas village setup that she displays in her garage during the holidays. Our intent is to take our new collection and setup a large nativity display in conjunction with her Christmas village display. We intend to display starting Thanksgiving 2014. 

I am excited about this forum, to learn more about the figures and continue growing my collection. Most of my collection is the 5' series, although (usually by mistake) I have purchased some 2.5', 4', 6.6' and 7' figures. I'm not as excited about some of the newer scenes and buildings, so I tend to look for the older ones. I've purchased several at significant discounts, so I've been fortunate. 

I should also mention that we plan to have a "Life of Christ" during the Easter season. I think that we will put this up during March and it will be inside our house. 

Thanks for reading.

[Brenda]

Wow! That is awesome! My husband and I would love to go to Italy soon.