We visited two church parking lots last night to see their nativity scenes. The first was very humble, with a makeshift stable, kids in costume and two sheep baaing so loud they occasionally drowned out the narrator. They did a 5-10 minute pageant, which they repeated every 15 minutes or so. There was hot cocoa and cookies and several church members practically begged us to walk into the sanctuary because they had it decorated so pretty. We did, and it was beautiful. Besides the church members, there were a small handful of guests like us enjoying the event. Andrew spent his time with the sheep and three chickens.
The second nativity was a drive-through complete with search light and multiple attendants to direct traffic. As we passed through the snack bar, church members came up to our window and offered us cocoa and popcorn. I overheard one server tell another that they had 900 people so far. Then we drove into a line-up that reminded me of the car stack lanes for a ferry. When it was our turn to move into position, we tuned our radio to hear the show and watched a nativity light show worthy of that Christmas light fight show on TV (I think — I’ve never actually watched it). It was about 10 minutes long and flawless — which was nice since it took us probably 45 minutes to get through the line to see it.
Two nativity scenes telling the same story, but polar opposite in style. The light show was incredible, but if I had to pick just one, I’d visit the little stable with the noisy sheep.
Books 'n stuff by Donna 