Nativity scenes and music unite to bring cheer

PLAINS – The church of Latter Day Saints held an event that aimed to keep the spirit of Christmas alive, filling the church with both nativity scenes and musical performances.

According to one of the organizers, Mary Egbert, the goal of the event is to get back to the true meaning of Christmas.

“We need to have the spirit of why we even have Christmas and its because our savior was born,” said Egbert.

In the second year of the event, the number of nativity scenes grew dramatically. Last year there were over 100 while this year that number jumped to 212.

Although local community members brought in all the sets, the sets were collected from near and far.

“Some sets are from all over the world,” said another organizer, Sue Baker. “This is a collection of what people collected and it’s a good variety. We’d love to have more.”

Preparing the church for the event is intensive with five volunteers working eight hours a day for several days to set up the scenes.

As white cloths blanketed the tables, the scenes were carefully displayed on top – each unique in its own way. Some nativity scenes featured snow globes while others focused on different ethnicities. One thing was for sure; all the scenes were somehow different from the one sitting next to it.

“People say it’s beautiful and we’d love to double it. We’d love to have more people come and enjoy it,” said Egbert.

Off in a back room, a musical performance was held, featuring many people from throughout the church. The Plains Primary Children performed along with several families and also the Plains Branch Young Women.

Although the performers were from the church, hopes are that in years to come the community will also participate.

“Our goal is to get the community to come in and volunteer. If anybody wants to bring nativities in, we would welcome that,” said Egbert.

The event may turn into a bi-yearly event because of the amount of work that goes into pulling off such an intensive project.

“There were about five of us, eight hours a day,” said Egbert. “And that’s the actual physical part of it and then there are the hours of organizing, dreaming and envisioning it.”

Although no final decision was made, this year’s event proved to be successful. As the musical performances started at 6 p.m., the crowd of people coming through picked up. Christmas carols and hymns were sung as everyone enjoyed a plethora of sweet refreshments.

Having the event early in the season is a way to help lengthen the cheerful holiday feel to this time of month.

“We like having it early because hopefully (the spirit) will stretch for the rest of the season,” said Egbert.