A local collection of Nativity sets that holds the Guinness World Record has reached a new milestone. Local historian Michael Zahs shares that he now has 3,000 Nativity sets thanks to a recent donation. The collection was named the largest Nativity set collection by Guinness a few years ago, at the time it included 2,324 sets.

Last winter, the collection was set up at Hills Bank in Washington and Zahs says it drew people to town, “We’re hoping to have the collection and have it permanently displayed here in Washington. When it was at the bank we had people from, I think, 17 countries and, I don’t know, 23 states or something. I didn’t bring the numbers, but several thousand people came to see that display and it wasn’t advertised.”

He adds that in the collection there are sets from over 100 different countries. He received his first one at the age of 5 from his aunt, and he still has it as part of the collection – in its original box.