Creche Set Up

I spent the entire afternoon helping set up the creche display for Follow The Star this weekend.

Our stake puts this free program on every year, rain or shine!  The Altisima building sits up on a hill and has some property attached to it, which for California is very rare.  Usually we just have enough land for the building and the parking lot. We lament not having ball fields and pavillions, but are so grateful that we have a place to worship!

The outdoor program runs each half hour.

It is the Christmas Story of the birth of the Savior.  There is a recorded narration with members of the stake acting out the parts complete with a sweet live baby!  Mothers with a baby born in the fall are asked to participate with their sweet newborns.  It is a precious experience.

All the animals are live from our members stables.

There are choirs and solos and hot chocolate and cider with cookies and then the beautiful creche exhibit.  Each year it grows.  The missionaries have booths set up and classrooms with displays about Christ and the Gospel.

 Kathy and Anita from my ward.  Kathy just had a new grandbaby born this morning a couple of hours before her creche shift began!

Our shift did the set up and building of tables.  Covering with tablecloths and draping with fabric, which means a lot of ironing!  Then setting out the precious nativities.

Even though we are working, (and this is hard work) there is quite the spirit in the rooms.  People have graciously lent their nativities for the event and there is a reverence and respect for them, but it all seems to be about The Baby.  The birth of baby Jesus.  The great gift from our Heavenly Father beginning His mortal life.  All that we hold dear he makes possible.

The shift tonight and tomorrow with put all the finishing touches on:  lighting, festive greenery, and season appropriate decorations to complete the displays.  The last shift tomorrow is inspection:  making sure each raw edge is turned, no strings or trash left, the music and lighting are cued.

 There is a beautiful story about this family heirloom set hand carved from Switzerland.

These are the kinds of creches all over the space.

Personal and emotional reminders of The Baby.

The outdoor crews were busy setting up as well.

Come tomorrow night this will be lit up with spots and sound equipment and the corral for the animals to be brought out on cue and shifts of people hosting, working the creche exhibit and kitchen, parking, and everything else you can imagine with a production.

It is open to the public and even with inclement weather is overcrowded. 

Something about The Baby's birth draws people here.