WINTERPORT, Maine — For the last 40 years, the spirit of Christmas has arrived in Winterport on the wings of angels, so to speak. This year will be no exception as six churches sponsor the 41st annual Live Nativity Pageant at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 19-20, at Winterport’s historic Union Meeting House.
The pageant is sponsored by St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church, Ellingwood’s Corner Methodist Church, Calvary Apostolic Church, Winterport Baptist Church, Frankfort Congregational Church and Hampden United Methodist Church.
“It’s a gift from Winterport to the community,” said Beth Thieme, 47, who has served as coordinator of the pageant since 1997.
Thieme has been a parishioner at St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church for 37 years. In her youth, she took part in the pageant, playing Mary, angels, Joseph, Wise Men and shepherds.
Her daughters, Emma, 19, and Hannah, 21, also took part in past enactments of the Live Nativity, playing nearly every part — which helps to explain why Thieme volunteered in 1997 to be the pageant coordinator for 20 years.
“In 1997 it looked like the pageant wouldn’t go on,” she recalled. “The Methodist Church, which had organized it, was closing, and [the remaining dozen or so members were] attending the Hampden Methodist Church, so I decided to take it from there. I want to see the pageant get to the 50-year mark,” she said. “I figure anything that has been around that long can’t be stopped.”
It was in 1997 that it became clear that the costumes for the Live Nativity were in need of replacing. Various organizations in Winterport donated a total of $250 and a few women in town volunteered to sew new costumes, Thieme writes in “An Account of the Winterport Live Nativity Pageant up to the Year 2008,” a report she has put together to ensure that the history of the pageant, which for the most part is oral, does not disappear into the great void of time.
Thieme’s family is one of many in Winterport who hold the pageant dear to their hearts.
“Other families in Winterport — Hauger, Thibodeau, Nelson, El-Hajj, to name a very few — also are second-generation participants,” Thieme said. “We’re even close to having a third generation involved.”
Betty Hauger took roles in the Live Nativity when she was growing up and so did her daughters, Meg and Katie. Now, Hauger provides live animals for the event.
The pageant got its start, Thieme said, in 1967 when the Rev. Gil McDowall, minister at the Winterport Methodist Church, came up with the idea and wrote a script for it.
“We still use the script,” Thieme said. “The script has never been altered and we sing the same songs sung at the first pageant — ‘Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem,’ ‘Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,’ ‘What Child Is This,’ ‘We Three Kings’ and ‘Silent Night.’”
It used to be, she said, that teenagers played the parts in the Nativity, but now it’s middle school youngsters who volunteer. Children must be age 10 or older to participate.
During the 12 minutes the pageant lasts each evening, traffic is stopped and Central Maine Power Co. douses power to street lights.
“Some people get annoyed when traffic stops,” Thieme said, “but when they get out of their cars and come to see what’s going on, they stop to watch and some have told me that they were really glad they saw the pageant.”
Many people make the pageant possible, she added. They include, but are not limited to, Jeff Nelson, who built a box to control pageant lighting; Betty Hauger, who provides sheep, cows and a pony for the manager scene; John Fraser, who for years built the manger before a the local Boy Scout Troop built a folding one that did not need to be rebuilt every year; and Richard Crossman, who sets up the public address system.
It was Crossman, Thieme said, who figured out that sound waves don’t carry well in cold air and that the speakers needed to be moved to the side of the road where the crowd gathers to watch the pageant opposite the meeting house.
Each year the pageant is dedicated to someone who has the best interests of Winterport at heart. This year it will be dedicated to Teddy and Don Weston, who are devoted to the history of Winterport, Thieme said.
One of the highlights of the pageant happens when the shepherds go into the crowd and beckon the people to follow, to cross the street to gather around the Nativity scene. In that way, the viewers become a part of the pageant, Thieme said.
Taking part in the pageant are the Rev. Kurt Herber of the Hampden Highlands Methodist Church and Madison Albert of the Ellingwood’s Corner Methodist Church, narrators; Maria Andrew, Highest Angel; Chelsea El-Hajj and Cassie El-Hajj, Hill Angels; Joshua Kord, Littlest Angel; Jayme Bickford, Mary; Lucas Kord, Joseph; Andrew Pinkos, Ryan Kord and Brandon Pelletier, the Three Kings; Catrina El-Hajj, Alec Marquis, Kole Marquis, Julia Andrew and Hannah Gallagher, Hill Shepherds; Lance El-Hajj and Jackie El-Hajj, Street Shepherds; Nicole Lester, Innkeeper.
Taking part Saturday night are Jayme Bickford, Highest Angel; Julia Andrew and Ruby El-Hajj, Hill Angels; Rachel Palmer, Littlest Angel; Maria Andrew, Mary; Mary Dube, Hill Shepherd; Adam Pinkos and his mother, Sherry Pinkos, Street Shepherds.
The Live Nativity Pageant, Thieme said, “is what tradition is. It’s part of Christmas, especially for the kids who have been in the pageant. It’s the essence of Christmas.”