Wax nativity scene continues decades-long tradition at Hamilton funeral home (live animals included)

The free nativity scene is open to the public 24/7 until New Year’s Eve, said Sarah Young, 44, Paul Young’s granddaughter and director of human resources and communications at the three funeral homes.

The original nativity scene remains at the Mount Healthy location and Young estimates thousands of people visit them every year.

“For me this is a piece of my family history and it’s wonderful to share it with people,” she said. “You can’t believe how many people tell me, ‘I remember when my grandparents brought me’ or ‘My parents used to bring me here.’ That’s cool.”

The groundwork for these nativity scenes began in 1935 in Colerain School when Paul Young carved his first figure in a bar of soap. Later he studied Restorative Art in the College of Embalming where he graduated in 1942. In 1946, he attended Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London to study how to make wax figures, his granddaughter said.

He was told he could study in London for one week. He remained for two.

That knowledge was “a rare privilege,” his granddaughter said.

After returning from World War II, Young, an Army medic, attended the Cincinnati Art Academy, majoring in sculpturing. He later taught Restorative Art at the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science for 10 years.

All the figures in the display were originally sculpted in clay of Hamilton residents, Young said. The two Young children, Beverly and Paul Jr., were models when two children were added to the display, she said.

The first display was erected in 1948 at the Mount Healthy funeral home and featured Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus. Then, in the years that followed, more characters were added.

In the 1960s, Young purchased the Grismer and Grimm Funeral Home in Hamilton, then moved it to Pleasant Avenue. In the late 1960s or early 1970s Young built a nativity scene for the Hamilton location.

Not wanting it vandalized, Young placed it at the Fairfield police station or municipal building, his granddaughter said. But it was vandalized there, so he moved it to the funeral home, she said.