When Matthew Sable, 12, of Prospect Heights placed the Christ child in the manger in the Nativity scene at Daley Plaza Nov. 27, it marked 25 years of the public depiction of the first Christmas on that site. Cardinal George came to bless the crèche, and a large crowd gathered to witness the dedication, said Jim Finnegan, who is one of the organizers of the allvolunteer God Squad that puts it up every year. “The warmth from the cardinal’s presence was palpable,” Finnegan said. “It was one of the best ones yet.” But the construction of the crèche was not always such a peaceful event and feel-good story. In 1985, the first year volunteers put a Nativity scene on Daley Plaza, William Grutzmacher obtained a permit from the Chicago Public Building Commission, which controls the plaza, But when the scene was erected, the American Jewish Congress, the American Civil Liberties Union and American Atheists wanted to have it removed, and the Chicago Public Building Commission reversed its original position. Parts of that first Nativity scene were broken apart and thrown in the trash as Grutzmacher, who had purchased the Nativity scene, Joe and Ann Scheidler and other volunteers and supporters tried to guard it. The supporters eventually got an injunction allowing the crèche to stay while the matter was decided in court, and in 1989, federal district Judge James Parsons ruled that religious speech cannot be banned from public property. None of the rancor of 25 years ago was on display this year. Instead, the group of volunteer tradesmen — largely Catholic, but not an explicitly Catholic group — did their thing. The handbell choir from Santa Maria del Popolo played. The children present walked in procession with the Christ child. The cardinal and other clergymen present blessed the crèche. It was the first time the Sable family was present for the construction and blessing of the Nativity scene, said Jim Sable, Matthew’s father. The family had seen the crèche in the past on holiday trips downtown, but didn’t think too much about how it got there. This year, Finnegan, who knows Sable from other projects, invited them for the blessing and dedication. “It was just a blessing that Matthew was picked,” said Sable. Later, in interviews, Matthew and his mother, Wendy, talked about how meaningful it was for them to go downtown as a family this year. Last year, the youngest Sable brother, David, 7, spent much of the Christmas season in the hospital with ulcerative colitis. Finnegan, who started taking a leadership role in the God Squad when Grutzmacher retired and moved out of the area in 1996, said that the Nativity scene didn’t get so much media attention in the early years — at least not after the first year, when its near-destruction was broadcast on the evening news. What garnered it more attention was the theft of the Baby Jesus in 1999, when the statue was returned at the Greyhound station, and again in 2004 when a student from the College of the Art Institute was apprehended as he ran from the scene with the statue. Since then, the baby has been secured to the manger. “After that, people paid more attention,” Finnegan said, “It’s just another case of the Lord writing straight in crooked lines.”