With the 44th Annual Festival of Lights at the Washington, D.C. Temple Visitors’ Center, cancelled for the 2021 holiday season, another grand tradition began just 15 miles northwest. Christian faiths, including Catholic, United Methodist, Presbyterian and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose church buildings reside on or near a stretch of Route 28 in Maryland shared a remarkable and rare collection of over 1,100 nativities from around the world, musical programs, social gatherings and worship services with the community throughout December. “A Route 28 Christmas” website provided the schedule of events among the participating congregations. Amid doctrinal differences, the congregations have shown a profound solidarity in jointly remembering and celebrating the sacred birth of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. As stated on its website, “A Route 28 Christmas is an inclusive celebration, and we welcome the participation of all religions that teach faith, hope, charity, and service to community….”  

“A Route 28 Christmas” comes at a much-needed time when faith and fellowship are eroding in society. As Gallup reported last spring, “U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time.” President Dallin H. Oaks expressed concern about low church attendance among various faiths during the recent October General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: “Today, my message concerns such good and religious-minded people who have stopped attending or participating in their churches. When I say ‘churches,’ I include synagogues, mosques, or other religious organizations. We are concerned that attendance in all of these is down significantly, nationwide. If we cease valuing our churches for any reason, we threaten our personal spiritual life, and significant numbers separating themselves from God reduce His blessings to our nations.”

The Story Behind the “Raines Collection” of Over 1,100 Nativities posted on “A Route 28 Christmas” website:

The more than 1,100 nativities collected from countries all over the world were accumulated by Ret. Col. Samuel Raines and his wife Carol during their 52 years of marriage. They married in 1969 and began a life together filled with remarkable experiences. Sam’s career in the United States military meant travel and stationing in different countries and on different continents. He and Carol weren’t content to simply live life; they sought to experience it through service, understanding, and through the many different cultures and people they came to know and love.

Along this journey they discovered that good in the world far outweighs bad. The nativities they collected provided them with a cultural and spiritual connection to the artists and individuals who constructed them, often with materials only found where they lived. They were fascinated by the different representations of the birth of Jesus Christ, and sought to share their collection wherever Sam’s military career took them. During the Festival of Lights held at the Washington, D.C. Temple grounds of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, pieces of the Raines collection were displayed in the “Creche Room” of the Temple’s Visitors’ Center. In 2008, after a lifetime of travel, the couple settled in Bellingham, Washington….

In early 2021, Sam and Carol sold their entire collection to a family in Maryland. The family promised to share the collection with their community in an effort to bring people together through the cultural uniqueness and spiritual symbolism of the nativities. The “Raines Collection” is one of the largest and most unique nativity collections in the United States….This collection serves in part as their testament of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. 

After a fight with cancer, Sam Raines passed on October 20, 2021.