The Living Nativity at Discovery Baptist Church in Gig Harbor

The idea for our first Living Nativity came in 1998 after seeing what one of my friends, Mike Jennings, did at their church in Tacoma. We realized the need to proclaim the birth of Christ in this realistic and historical way in our culture where Christmas has become a commercial event with a mythical emphasis.

Our forested church setting was well suited for such an event, so our youth group, led by Marty Simons, put together a simple manger scene along the edge of our parking area. About 26 people put up a cave-like scene and acted as the holy couple, shepherds, and magi for the evening. About 58 cars drove through and a few walkers for a total of 243 that first winter’s night. Interest was high, so we did it the following year with some angels singing, too – this time 481 folks came.

Each year cars and crowds grew so we added showings on the second and third nights and our character cast grew to around 200 depicting more aspects of the first Christmas. Eventually, we had about a dozen scenes complete with animals, torchlight, and special effects. By 2011 the number of cars and walkers grew to about 5,000. Scenes now were realistic with the characters interacting with guests as if they were visiting Bethlehem on the night of Christ’s birth. We strove to be as biblically accurate as possible and leave out contemporary expressions of Christmas that had nothing to do with the birth of Christ. People coming through loved it and some were even in tears.

With the larger crowds came hazards with both cars and walkers coming through Bethlehem. Therefore, in 2012 our friends at Harbor Covenant Church opened their entire parking area so guests could park there and walk across the street to our village. People could now see scenes up close, interact with characters like the Roman guards, innkeeper, village merchants, shepherds, magi, the manger scene, and so on, and not worry about being run over. Police also became essential to direct traffic which was growing each year. In 2017 we had over 5,600 attend during the two evenings.

Entrance to the Living Nativity is free, even though expenses have increased. Donations are gratefully accepted and can be made securely online here.