"Yes, That's a Real Baby in the Manger"

South County residents of all ages came together for the annual Follow the Star event hosted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Rancho Santa Margarita.  The event, which includes a live nativity, as well as an indoor display of creches from around the world, “gives our neighbors in the community a chance to share in this special spirit of peace and joy during the Christmas season,” says Jeffrey Shields, one of the volunteers running the event. The show is organized and run strictly by volunteers from the community. “It takes over a 1,000 volunteers hours to set up and run this event, and that doesn’t take into account the hours our volunteers spent on coordination,” says Bethany Warnick of Rancho Santa Margarita, the Follow the Star project leader.

In addition to the live animals in the performance, the live nativity presentation casts amateur teens and adults playing the roles in the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.  The most unique part of the cast are the young babies which portray the Christ child himself. Babies under five months of age are cradled by “Mary” and placed in the manager. Kathleen Himber, mother of two from Foothill Ranch, was a little hesitant when first asked if she would like her daughter to participate. “I’m very careful about who I trust my daughter with, but then we got really excited about it. What an awesome memory to have our baby in such an important role for Christmas!”

Note: The annual Follow the Star lasts three nights and the last show is tonight, Sunday, December 15th with shows starting 6:00pm.  The last 20-minute show starts at 8:30pm.  Dress warm as the presentation is outside. 

Click here for directions: 

http://thelivingnativity.org

Special thanks to Izzy Whiting for writing this article and Brian Andre for great pictures.