WATCH: Texas Church Uses 1,000 Drones to Tell the Christmas Story

Community Nativities Don’t Always Go As Planned

Whether you gather around the tree to share the Christmas story as a family, share in a community event, or plan a nativity scavenger hunt for your kids, there are many ways to remember the Christmas story and engage in the season.

While several churches have set up a nativity scene each year, a Chicago-area church has taken the idea further, adding controversy by introducing today’s cultural issues and fears.

Lake Street Church of Evanston, Illinois, updated is nativity scene by removing Joseph, the father of Jesus, and replacing him with a memorial to those who have been affected by raids and arrests conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

“The Holy Family were refugees. This is not political interpretation, this is the reality described in the stories our tradition has told and retold for millenia,” the church said of the scene. “By witnessing this familiar story through the reality faced by migrants today, we hope to restore its radical edge, and to ask what it means to celebrate the birth of a refugee child while turning away those who follow in that child’s footsteps.”

Another live nativity, complete with large animals, went awry earlier this season. Champion Forest Baptist Church, a multisite church in the Houston area, decided to escort characters and live animals through the church’s worship center. A camel kicked a woman in the audience as the animal was led down the aisle.

The woman was taken to the hospital and later released. The church didn’t escort animals down the aisles at the later services.