Living Creche

[MamaJ]

I live in a picturesque New England town on Cape Cod. My Church is the one that you picture in your head when you close your eyes and think Christmas. It is an old but well kept white Church on the village green. There is a wooden gazebo on the green. We are next door to the local fire house and across the street from a quaint library. You can't get any prettier than this! On Saturday Dec 22 beginning at 4 P.M. a candle-light procession will form at the Playhouse which is just down the road from the Church. From there, the Town crier leads young & old to the village green. They sing Christmas Carols on their way. There at the green is a manager scene. The Christmas story will unfold in song with real people playing all the parts. The angels are usually squirming little ones who appear uncomfortable under their halos. Shepherd boys try to reign in unruly goats. Mary sits astride a donkey with Baby Jesus in her arms. Joseph leads them out to the manager. The first year I experienced all this, as I knelt down to whisper explanations into the ear of my then 2 year old daughter (She is now 20) I had tears in my eyes. Years later my second daughter would play the role of Baby Jesus. She was the "screaming Jesus"! My shopping is only now begun but I am ready for the "Real Christmas."

[Denirae]

MamaJ, your little church and community sound heavenly. Our church use to have the live perfomance too. And like yours, my daughter was Mary and my son a sheppard. My daughters church has a wonderful play we enjoy now. A very big production. Have a wonderful Christmas.

[blueiis]

I would love for our community to do live performances, but to my knowledge, there is no one in our area that does this, except in our church plays. Nothing is on a public display such as yours. I too, am ready for seeing something other than commercialism from stores about Christmas, that accents the real meaning of Christmas.

[licia]

Bearwoman, thanks for bumping this up. I don't think I'd ever read it. I remember a play like the one you mentioned. In the play, my dad was sent to hell. It was so real to my siblings and me. We cried for ages until mom and dad explained it was make believe and dad wasn't really going there. He had made the right choices in life. I can't remember the name of the play. We have a huge production at our church at Easter called the North Florida Passion Play. There are hundreds in the cast and it takes them quite a while to outfit the church for the story from the angel appearing to Mary through the ascension. We had about 5,000 who came for it this past Easter.