Night of Nativities to take place Dec. 2 and 3

The third annual “Night of Nativities” event will take place on Dec. 2 and 3 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Bonners Ferry. The event features hundreds of nativity scenes on display, as well as musical performances by a host of special guests. The festivities will occur from 5 to 9 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 2, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Special performances on Friday night include a performance by Spokane-based quartet “Snap Shot” and a visiting saxophone quartet. Local community members such as Glenda Novinger are scheduled to perform as well.

Lisa Carle, who is in charge of organizing the Night of Nativities, emphasizes that it is a community event and not a church event. More and more churches have gotten involved over the years, however, either by donating nativity scenes or volunteering to help out. Even though it is being held at the LDS church, the event is inclusive of all denominations.

According to Carle, there were approximately 180 nativity scenes set up last year and over 400 people attended the two-day event. She says that this year’s goal is to have over 200 scenes, and that they are well on their way to reaching that number.

Carle says that she started the Night of Nativities event three years ago after moving to Bonners Ferry from Mountain Home, where the event had been a standing tradition over the years: “I missed doing this back home and that’s why I started it here in town.”

Carle considers Bonners Ferry her home now, and says that she couldn’t be happier about how the event has been embraced by the community over the years: “We had more nativity scenes here [in Bonners Ferry] the first year I did it than we ever had in Mountain Home.”

Everyone in the community is invited to donate their nativity scene for the weekend. Carle asks that people bring in their nativity scenes either on Wednesday between 5 and 8:30 p.m., on Thursday between 9 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. or on Friday between 9 a.m. and noon. Community members can awlso volunteer to help set up and take down the scenes.

Anyone interested in either volunteering or bringing in a nativity scene should contact Lisa Carle at (208) 371-2382. She can also be reached via email at busymama32004@gmail.com.