For more than 50 years, people have come to the First Presybterian Church in Clarksdale on the nights before Christmas in hopes of seeing the enactment of Jesus Christ’s birth in a Bethlehem stable.
A steady, cold rain that fell Wednesday night, Dec. 19 didn’t deter onlookers and participants in this year’s live nativity scene.
John Stoltman, a 45-year member of the Clarksdale church, said the community looks forward to the annual event.
“There are some folks that come every year. They’ll bring their grandkids,” he said.
The family friendly event featured church members, as well as students and faculty of Presbyterian Day School, taking on the varied roles, ranging from shepherd and wise man to the angels and Mary and Joseph.
Each 15 to 20 minutes, a new group would rotate in and take their place as vehicles slowed along Smith Street and onlookers took photos and smiled.
There were even two goats and an alpaca included in this year’s display, courtesy of Jim and Nanette Roberts.
Stoltman said there is usually a Jerusalem donkey that is part of the scene, but he said, with a grin, that Roberts had been unable to corral him this year.
