BANGOR – Visitors to the fourth annual creche exhibit Dec. 5-7 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will take a step back in time this year, said Michelle Thomas, organizer and public relations specialist at the church.

“This year’s display is going to be totally different from what is expected,” Thomas said. “The decor will be that of a marketplace in Bethlehem – it will have very earthy color tones.” Market stalls, like those that may have been part of the ancient city, will line the walls of the gymnasium at the church on Grandview Avenue where the creche exhibit will be held:

. Noon-8 p.m. Friday.

. 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday.

. Noon-8 p.m. Sunday.

“We want to make people feel as if they are entering Bethlehem, to take them back in time, to show that it [the birth of Christ] is a real story and that it really happened,” she said. “We’ll even have a well in the middle of the marketplace. Angie Martin is painting backdrops and Tish Frish is creating a Bedouin tent.”

Paula Nickerson, Lin Meier, Brenda Dresser, Shawna Stratton-Meier, Annie Patterson and Amy Williams, she said, also are part of the team of nine women who are organizing, setting up and creating the ambience for the exhibit.

Going to see the display of Nativity sets has become, Thomas said, as much a part of the area’s seasonal tradition as getting a Christmas tree, seeing a performance of “The Nutcracker” and going to the downtown Bangor holiday parade.

The exhibit, said Michael Aube of Bangor, “has become part of our family Christmas tradition. It adds a note of solemnity to what can be a hectic season.”

Aube and his wife, Marion, who are Roman Catholics, have a personal collection of 100 creches, of which they lend 35 to the exhibit. Among them is a state of Maine creche with a nautical theme – the three Wise Men are a fisherman, a farmer and a lumberman. This is the third year that the Aubes have loaned their creches.

This year’s exhibit will include nearly 320 manger scenes, 85 percent of them loaned by people from faith communities other than Latter-day Saints, including Roman Catholic, Congregational and Methodist.

An 18-piece stained glass Nativity, which belonged to the late Margaret Brooks of Bangor, a member of All Souls Congregational Church, will be on display in her memory. She had loaned the creche for previous exhibits.

Brooks’ daughter, Mary, said that her mother’s friend, Rita Chalmers of Bangor, made the Nativity and gave Margaret Brooks several pieces at a time as gifts between 1986 and 1989.

“The exhibit was very important to her,” Mary Brooks said.

“Margaret Brooks loaned the Nativity set to us each year and one of her last requests was that her family would continue to loan it – which says so much about her commitment to the creche exhibit,” Thomas said.

Thomas expects 2,000 people to attend the event this year. The idea for the display came from Dr. Lewis Hassell, who saw a creche exhibit in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1999 and brought the idea to Bangor.

The exhibit will have a special room for creches from Central and South America. Other highlights are a Maine folk art display of creches made by Maine artists and artisans, and an exhibit where children may touch and play with creches. Children also may dress up in costumes like those worn by figures in the Nativity, and craft an item to take home.

Bill and Lois Hogan of Veazie, members of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Brewer, loaned eight creches to the exhibit. One is a 12-piece Fontanini set made in Italy, which the Hogans have acquired a few pieces at a time since 1986. Another creche the Hogans loaned is made of blue-tinted glass, which they received many years ago as a Christmas gift from their pre-teenage children. The youngsters purchased it with money they earned from doing chores at home and delivering the Bangor Daily News.

“We have a strong love for the Christmas season,” Bill Hogan said. “It’s nice that so many people want to share [the Nativity sets]” – to bring them out of the privacy of homes and into public.

“People visit the creche exhibit for several reasons,” Thomas said. “They want to return to what Christmas means, they want to get in touch with the Christmas spirit and they want a sense of peacefulness – a contrast to the commercialism of the season. They say coming here puts them in touch with childhood memories of Christmas.”

There is no admission fee to the display, no corporate sponsors, and donations are not accepted, although many visitors offer them.

Other highlights include:

. LDS Church choir, 7 p.m. Friday.

. Trumpeter Andre Winters, and his sister, Tzietel, 1-2 p.m; Harpist Lieza Rey of Southwest Harbor, 3-4 p.m. Saturday.

. A live Nativity 2-3 p.m. Saturday and 1-2 p.m. Sunday.

. Pianist Katlin McCumber, noon; harpist Margheta Hassell, 2:30 p.m.; Mormon Tabernacle Choir on the big screen via satellite, 8 p.m. Sunday.

“The creche display [and its festivities],” Thomas said, “[are] the church’s gift to the community.”