“Nearly 20 centuries ago, the miracle of miracles occurred. A baby was born, but he was the Son of God. With a divine Father and a human mother, Jesus entered history—God in the flesh.” Those are the opening lines of a South Dakota church’s live nativity program, an event that since 2021 has been portraying the biblical narrative of Jesus’ birth “in the flesh,” with people and animals depicting six scenes around the rural church’s parking lot and property.
Pastor Norlyn Van Beek, a specialized transition minister serving New Holland (S.D.) Christian Reformed Church since 2022, said this year’s event “was a perfect night, chilly, with no wind, and the night sky was just what I imagined it would have been like with the stars so vivid and clear.” He added that a “highlight was two lambs born just the day before.”
The young lambs were brought by Dillon and Jamie Munneke, members of New Holland CRC who raise sheep. Dillon, fittingly, played a shepherd in the live nativity’s fourth station—the angel greeting the shepherds. Jamie was the angel.
Two other church families—Riley and Jamie Niewenhuis and Sarah and Brady Baan Hofman—brought donkeys, horses, cows, goats, a farm cat, and some chickens. The Niewenhuises played Mary and Joseph walking their donkey in scene two, Sarah Baan Hofman said. Baan Hofman is the main organizer of the live nativity and came up with the idea for the project.
“Before we began the Living Nativity, our church didn't have any sort of event we planned for Christmas besides maybe a music request program some years, the Sunday School Christmas program or Christmas worship service,” Baan Hofman said. “When I came up with the idea for the Living Nativity in 2021, our area was being hit with COVID. I wanted a way for people to be able to come to church to see the story of Christ's birth in the comfort of their own vehicle. Since then, I just want to make the story of Jesus' birth real to people of all ages, for it to not be just a story from the Bible, but something that actually happened, and that he came to earth for them.”
This year’s event took place 5:30-7:30 p.m. Dec. 8. Baan Hofman said it took her team of six or seven volunteers about five hours to set up. Another 18-20 people were in the nativity scenes.
When visitors arrived by vehicle, they received a printed program to narrate the route.
“Each scene has corresponding Scripture and narrative,” Baan Hofman said, beginning with Luke 1:30-33, the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary, and ending with a tableau of a manger and a cross and the reminder: “Jesus came to earth as a baby to carry out the greatest mission of all time. … His death was the ultimate sacrifice. His resurrection was a triumphant victory over death. All of this was done for YOU. So you can have eternal life and share in His Kingdom forever!”
Baan Hofman said 125 cars came through this year and about 160 in 2023. The nativity didn’t take place in 2022 because temperatures in December were too cold for the outdoor event. It took place over two evenings in 2021 with 120 cars counted the first night and no count for the second.
Van Beek, who said he helped to direct traffic this year, came to New Holland CRC when the project was in its second year. “From all that I have seen and heard, the reason for doing this is to create an opportunity for something people can do together and experience a bit of the reality of the dark, the cold, the mystery, and the joy of Christmas.”
Like Baan Hofman, Van Beek’s hope is that the live storytelling “makes the story more real.”