Emanuel Church plans for annual Live Nativity

Photo of Emanuel Church’s 2021 Live Nativity

Emanuel Church’s Live Nativity will mark its 48th year on Thursday and Friday, December 14 and 15. Members of the community are invited to join the congregation of Emanuel in observing this event from 7pm to 9pm in the courtyard between the church and the fellowship hall at 324 W Main St. On these evenings the Nativity set silently comes to life with human performers and live farm animals.

This annual tradition has become a staple of the Manchester Christmas season; the Live Nativity began in 1976. Emanuel’s  pastor at the time, Pastor Joseph Wise, had grown up in Landis, North Carolina, and his home church had a live nativity. He headed up an effort to recreate it here. Church members worked for most of 1976 building the stable and manger, wiring it, sewing costumes, and then casting the parts and acquiring the loan of farm animals. The first Live Nativity went for four nights and was accompanied by a large repertoire of Christmas carols. 

The Live Nativity’s history includes cancellations some years, like when temperatures dipped below zero, or most recently, in 2020, due to COVID, and more humorous mishaps like in 1977 when a donkey escaped his pen and spent several hours roaming around the streets. He was eventually captured and returned. It has had its upgrades as well, with the current Live Nativity set constructed by church member Sutton Jacobs as an Eagle Scout Project in 2015.

Stop by on the evenings of Thursday and Friday, December 14 and 15, and observe this longstanding Manchester tradition that shouldn’t be missed.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.