Animals add authenticity to Nativity scenes
As the donkey and llamas settle in the hay Friday night, Paula Hayner hopes the children watching in wonder can envision what it was like in Bethlehem the night Jesus was born.
“(The animals) bring back the realness of the Christmas spirit,” said Hayner, co-owner of Sunshine Farms on the Far West Side, which provides farm animals for about 20 live Nativity scenes at central Ohio churches each December. “It kind of puts the Christmas back into Christmas.”
Hayner’s is one of several local and regional companies that work with churches to make their Nativity scenes come alive Online
To see a video of the Nativity animals at Westerville Christian Church, visit Dispatch.com/videos.
with real animals. Though some may think it’s a challenge to find animals in Ohio’s winter, it’s actually quite an industry locally.
The cost of welcoming the live animals, ranging from hundreds to a few thousand dollars, not to mention the potential cleanup, is more than worth it, according to local church leaders.
“It’s the highlight of the year,” said Jennifer Casto, pastor at Epworth United Methodist Church on the Northeast Side, which hosts a live, drive-through
Nativity. “If you’re going to do a live Nativity, you absolutely have to have live animals . ... We wanted to give people a real sense of what it would have been like in Bethlehem during the time of Jesus’ birth.”
Epworth is hosting its Nativity, with six scenes showing the Christmas story, from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday and next Sunday. Last year, more than 375 people drove through to see the 50 human cast members with donkeys, camels, sheep and other critters. The animals “really made a huge difference in the feel of the production,” Casto said.
“It’s one thing to have a picture of a camel. It’s another thing to see two live camels right there with the wise men,” she said. “It feels more authentic with the animals in it.”
Epworth gets its animals from a farm in Berry, Kentucky, that has more than 500 animals. Honey Hill Farms Mobile Petting Zoo and Pony Rides does about three or four drivethrough Nativities, all in Cincinnati except for the Nativity scene at Epworth, said Megan Larkin, assistant general manager and director of marketing and sales at the farm, which provides cleanup as well.
That’s not always the case, as Dave O’Roark, director of drama ministry at Grace Polaris Church, has found out over several years working on the church’s annual Christmas pageant.
He’s seen his share of camel, donkey, sheep and goat droppings. One of the parts in the pageant every year, which will run Friday through next Sunday, is a person who follows the animals around with a dust pan and broom.
This year, two camels will return to the pageant, along with a donkey and a horse. The Westerville church has even built a permanent enclosure for the animals to stay in while they’re working in the pageant, he said.
The large animals, especially the camels, are a big draw for people, said O’Roark, who gets the animals from a Wisconsin farm, which also works with the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium to do camel rides year-round.
“When people call to ask for tickets, they want to know if they can sit on the aisle the camel is going to walk down,” he said. “They love it.”
Advent Lutheran Church in Upper Arlington has hosted a live Nativity scene for 47 years, with animals in it for about 15, said Matthew Pittman, director of youth and family ministries.
Last year, about 400 attended the event, making the cleanup worth it, he said. This year, it was held last Sunday.
“There’s a lot of straw and tarps, and maybe some Febreeze once it’s over,” Pittman said. “It’s a very handson experience for the kids. They love it.”
O’Roark thinks the animals, even their droppings and smell, make people feel immersed in the experience and the story of Christmas.
“We try to give as real of an experience as possible, with the idea of reminding them that one day, 2,000 years ago, this really happened,” O’Roark said.
awidmanneese@ dispatch.com @AlissaWidman dking@dispatch.com @DanaeKing