The Alpine Village

We went to a celebration calle "The Alpine Village" at a local church this year just before we left for Indiana. It was a really ornately put together Christmas town. 

There were several awesomely decorated  Christmas trees. This one was a pretty huge hit! It had Frozen dolls all over it. 

Joel was impressed with the Truffula Trees. 

The Santa was alright. Mrs. Claus was better. They did enjoy thanking him for the gifts. 

The gym was beautifully decorated. They obviously have done this for years and it's a local tradition. All of the houses are built of wood, and well out together. Each house had a thing the kids could make or do. 

This was a puppet show about the Saviors birth.... Kind of. More on that later. 

They did have a cool "Snow" pit. It was little plastic shavings coming down from the ceiling. Very cool. 

The band was decent, actually. I enjoyed the music. 

There was a fun photo booth where a man used technology beyond his years to take family pictures for people. He was a super sweet guy! Eve kept making word faces! 

Train set up. 

Now my soap box. This was no small production. It was free to the community, and tickets were in high demand. As well as it was, it was advertised as a Christmas celebration with a live nativity and village. As ornate and thoughtful as the Christmas village was, the nativity was the opposite. I was EXTREMELY disappointed with the nativity. They could have done so much and promoted the real and true meaning of Christmas and celebrated Christ's birth, but they chose not to. The nativity was a small after thought done by irreverent teenagers. I was very disappointed that I touted the experience to my children and "the most important reason why we were there" and it was a NOTHING experience. I was and am so disappointed in a CHURCH who chose to downsize the sacredness I Christ's birth and instead make it about an entertaining puppet show, that explained the nativity, but negated the reverence. I don't know... Maybe I'm just a crabby old lady now not in the loop with prodestent Christian traditions, but the savior is more than a puppet show and a cool Christmas village with a snow maker and Santa. But when Santa is your best set up, where does the Savior fit? Can we make Him no room?