FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM A living Nativity scene accessible by car or foot has been set up at Central Union Church. Above, Nanea Baird, left, Jerome White and Age Girangaya, playing the three wise men, look to the stars.

Interactive nativity

Audiences can drive by or mingle
with the characters played by
Central Union Church members

For one night a year, members of Central Union Church become characters in a live Nativity scene for a drive-by audience.

The annual "Gift of Bethlehem" exhibit is a Christmas tradition for many participants.

Sandy Heggenes sat on the chapel stairs last Saturday night enjoying the church bells and watching her daughter and two sons play an angel and two shepherds.

"It's always fun to do this. They get to do it with their friends, and (the boys) love holding the animals. Her daughter, Hannah, "started as an angel when she was 3; now she's 14."

The audience can either view the exhibit from their cars or park and mingle with the characters.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Khloe Webster, left, Keoni Langley, Moya Kaohi and Emma Kaohi take part in the re-enactment.

This was the third year Kathy and J. Mark Ingoglia and their two boys have been in the Nativity exhibit. "It's our family tradition," Kathy Ingoglia said.

She and her husband are playing Mary and Joseph, holding baby Jesus (a large doll) in the manger. Their sons look forward to playing shepherds, she said.

This was the first time since they have participated that several real animals were used; last year, there was just one donkey, she said.

Kai Ingoglia, 12, loved playing with the sheep and sinking his fingers into their wool coats.

"They're like lemmings. If one goes somewhere, everyone goes," he said.

Four sheep, two donkeys and a calf were hired from Pa-o-ma Keiki Petting Zoo in Pupukea. Owners Paul and Verna Eguires dressed in period costume to blend in while they supervised their animals.

"I enjoy this. ... My kids and I drove through (the exhibit) years ago," Paul Verna said.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Capri Nakaima, left, Maria Giron, Tila Langley and Airika White, playing angels, sing Christmas songs.

Maria Giron, 13, has been an angel with silvery glittered cardboard wings since she was 9. This was the first year she had to help direct traffic during the first shift, but later she got to sing Christmas carols with the other angels on a raised platform and accompanied by the church bells.

She enjoys being a part of the exhibit because "it shows the birth of Jesus Christ and it's ... awesome." Giron said she's heard spectators comment that it seems to look "like the real thing."

Airika White, the "head angel" and Sunday school teacher, has been supervising little angels for three years.

"I look forward to this every year. When I was a kid, I went through the drive-through -- it was really something. It's become a staple of the church, a visual reminder of what the season truly is about," White said.