Bethlehem, KY

Christmas is Alive in Bethlehem

Betty Moody teases her granddaughter, Amber, with a bit of heavenly praise.

“She’s an angel. Literally,” Betty Moody laughs. “Been one for the past two years.”

Amber Moody, along with siblings Josh, Belinda, and Teresa, marks the fourth generation of the Moody clan—as well as scores of other residents in this Henry County, Ky., community—to honor their village with an annual Christmas celebration centered on a live Nativity scene, replete with livestock and manger.

That’s appropriate for a town named Bethlehem in the rolling hills, about 45 miles from Louisville. It’s just a bend in the road, really, with a post office and general store. But this farming community holds dearly to its tradition of celebrating Jesus’ birth, and every year thousands of visitors drive in to see the unique setting.

For more than 40 years, members of three local churches have donned shepherds’ cloaks, angels’ halos, and the richly colored robes of the Three Wise Men as they reconstruct one of the most beloved scenes in Christianity.

For a town with a population of about 300, the annual Nativity re-enactment is a monumental task, but one all have cherished since its beginnings.

Help abounds from area residents. Local farmer Tom McClain brings in livestock for the Nativity scene every year. Longtime resident Matthew Martin, 74, still helps erect the rough-hewn logs that make up the manger setting. Alvin Lee Roberts takes care of advertising the event in local newspapers. Even 83-year-old Wendell Roberts stays involved, directing the “characters” during shift changes to keep the event running on schedule from Dec. 22 through Christmas.

“Everyone’s really proud to participate in the Nativity,” Betty Moody says. “It’s become a family tradition for everyone involved. In fact, about three years ago, someone thought up the idea to make an individual ‘shift’ of characters (with) all members of one family. So we’ve been doing that ever since.”

The rich Christmas tradition in Bethlehem also extends to its mailing address: The village has its own special Christmas postmark, designed by former postmaster Anna Laura Peyton, who half a century ago used her front parlor as the community’s post office, says Cecil Peyton, the village’s recently retired postmaster (and Anna Laura’s son). Every year, thousands of pieces of Christmas mail are stamped with the special image of the Three Wise Men. Peyton says visitors are happy to make the trek for the postmark, and then they stop by the live Nativity scene. It’s a chance for them to enjoy the village’s heritage, he says.

Unofficial village historian Opal Heightchew says Bethlehem’s happy marriage to the Christian celebration was born sometime after the turn of the 20th century, when village fathers changed the name of the village from Mobley Stand to its present name.

“Nobody’s really sure how that happened,” Heightchew says. “But it’s been Bethlehem since the early 1900s.”

From there, a tradition was enacted, Moody says.

“Years ago, one of the pastors in a local church thought it would be a good idea to have some kind of recognition of our namesake town where Christ was born,” she recalls. “So people here all got together, and we came up with the idea of doing the live Nativity. That first year we wore bathrobes or whatever we could get our hands on. It’s improved every year since.”

“We’ve had folks come from Nashville, Tenn., and Indianapolis to see our Nativity,” Heightchew says. “They come by the busloads, and we try to have it so they can pull off the road and walk right up to the scene. They can touch the animals and talk with the actors. It’s all a wonderful experience for them.”

And the residents of Bethlehem, Ky., received another kind of blessing this year, following the news that the U.S. Postal Service was considering closing the tiny mail station here.

“Everyone got together and convinced the powers that be not to shut us down,” Heightchew says. “We were able to convince them that this was an important tradition to us, really to the region and the state. So, for now anyway, we still have our post office and we still provide the wonderful Christmas postmark.

Dennis O’Connor is a regular contributor to American Profile.

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