Live Nativity is a lasting tradition

Petting zoos aren’t quite posh enough for St. Armands Circle on the average day, but once a year, the two make for a magical combination. 

The sidewalk in front of St. Armands Key Lutheran Church was packed Friday night for its annual live nativity scene. Members can’t seem to settle on the year it started, but it’s been a hands-down favorite ever since. 

While Jane Wittlinger says they’ve been doing the nativity for five or six years, Sandi Love says she’s been an angel for seven. Either way, Friday night was her husband David Lawrence’s reluctant debut performance as a shepherd.

“On the way over, he said I owe him big time,” Love said. “What amazes me about the whole event is that you look out at the kids, and their little eyes light up. To me, that’s the best part of it.”

Visitors were allowed to pet the donkeys and get up close to the goats’ cage, but the camels were off-limits. They were busy trimming the church’s trees by munching leaves off the high branches. 

But the entertainment didn’t stop on four legs. A quartet led the crowd in a round of Christmas carols, and the Sarasota Contemporary Dance Ensemble performed throughout the evening.

This is a holiday tradition with no end in sight, even if no one can remember when it began.