WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis. (WSAW) – People in Wisconsin Rapids are celebrating the Christmas season this weekend with a live nativity scene at Calvary Baptist Church.
The event, called ‘Journey Through Bethlehem,’ runs tonight through Saturday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The back lot of the church is transformed into scenes from the Christmas story.
“When you bring it to life, people can see that and experience Christmas in a little bit different way,” said Dan Madsen.
100 actors bundle up in cold weather to depict scenes through the life of Jesus. Cars drive past the scenes, listening to audio descriptions of what is occurring at each station. Even in the see-your-breath kind of weather, volunteers said it didn’t deter them from wanting to be part of the live nativity and serving the community.
“It’s all service. We’re serving God. And because we want to bring attention to Christ, we want to show like in a physical manner, like everything that goes into the story, and people get to see it,” said Beaumont Canton Crawford, a carpenter involved in the event.
The event is free and doesn’t accept donations. This is the third year of Journey Through Bethlehem, an event that doesn’t happen overnight.
“We start in January. We’ll have our first committee meeting where we just start saying, we start going over what went well, what are the rough spots, how can we improve, how can we make it smoother,” Madsen said.
Alongside the actors, fire pits and over 30 live animals make the story come to life. Before the nativity began at 6 p.m., cars filled the parking lot out to the street with people looking forward to supporting those involved.
“I’ve never done any of this before, so I just think it’s going to be a really cool way to celebrate, you know, Christmas and kick off the Advent season and see the live animals and just all the hard work that goes into putting on something like this,” said Naomi, an attendee.
“Just the Christmas spirit and just getting out and about and being part of the community,” said Melissa, another attendee.
It takes about 15 minutes to drive through the scenes, but organizers warn that you should plan to wait in line. The event continues Friday and Saturday nights from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
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