East Bradenton nativity tweaked

David Gay, a member of the Evangel Baptist Church in Lakewood Ranch, slowly cut a hole into a wooden door, and Mark Bulger, another member of the church, carved parts of the door as cars slowly passed.

In past years, Gay and Bulger, who were portraying carpenters in Bethlehem during the church’s annual drive-thru Bethlehem Experience on Dec. 4, would interact with children and help them with a kids’ craft, but due to COVID-19, visitors remained in their cars and watched the carpenters work from afar. 

“It’s weird,” Bulger said. “The kids’ crafts made the time go by real quick last year.”

Evangel Baptist Church and the Tabernacle Church had to make adjustments to continue their tradition of live nativities this holiday season.

The Tabernacle Church has decided to continue its tradition of a 45-minute live production, but visitors will come to the church and park, and the church will have seating available.

Social distancing and face masks will be encouraged during the event, which runs at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10-13, but are not required.

The church didn’t have to limit the number of cast members participating in the telling of the Christmas story because the living nativity is outside, and there will only be a small number of actors on stage at a time.

At Evangel Baptist Church, the Bethlehem Experience has been a drive-thru and walk-around event to give visitors an opportunity to interact with the soldiers, villagers, bakers, carpenters, fishers and others, so they are immersed in what it was like in Bethlehem.

This year became a drive-thru only so families could safely view the Christmas story, and organizers decided not to have live animals because visitors wouldn’t be able to interact with them.

“The first year we did this, it started as just a drive-thru, and as the years went on, we added that you could go out and walk around,” said Kim Gay, a member of the church who portrayed a basket maker. “This year we’re back to square one. Even Bethlehem has to adjust.”

Usually, members distribute information about the church as well as goodies for the kids. As an added precaution this year, those were prewrapped, and the villagers wore masks as they passed them to visitors in their cars.

Although the nativities might not be the same, members of both the Tabernacle and Evangel Baptist said it was important to continue their traditions of hosting a living nativity for the community.

“People just need some enjoyment,” said Linda Baker, an organizer of the Bethlehem Experience at Evangel Baptist.

The nativities are also an opportunity for the church members to come together after months of having virtual or smaller church services due to the pandemic.

“We felt it was important to have [the nativity] because this is one of our biggest things we do, and it’s important for our people here, too,” said Jerry Baker, another event organizer and Linda Baker’s husband. “Almost the entire church gets involved with it, so if nothing else, we have fun.”