Ponte Vedra Presbyterian once again re-enacted a live Nativity in the biblical town with a cast of 200 people and animals. As visitors streamed under a large gate and into the re-created city of Bethlehem as it might have looked 2,000 years ago, they were greeted with sights, sounds, and smells that helped bring it to life.
As they strolled along winding paths, they saw 200 adults and children dressed in biblical garb portraying merchants, beggars, tax collectors, dancers, and animal keepers – and a family in a wooden manger portraying Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus.
They saw live camels, llamas, rabbits, sheep and goats.
They heard geese honking, carpenters hammering wood, and merchants hawking bread, fish, jewelry and vegetables.
A tax collector shouted at them to pay their taxes. Roman guards shouted for them to move along. And the smell of bonfires filled the air.
“It’s cold and chilly, but it gets people in the Christmas spirit,” said Leslie Flemister, “mayor” of Ponte Vedra Presbyterian Church’s annual “A Bethlehem Visit,” on Friday, its first night.
The walk through the Nativity, which also ran from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, is an annual tradition for the church, and for many Beaches and Jacksonville residents, she said.
This was the 18th year for the 8,000-square-foot Nativity, which brings thousands to the church on Palm Valley Road.
The village is on the church’s grounds, on a permanent set in the woods, and buses transport visitors back and forth from the PGA Tour Players Championship parking lot several miles away.
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