The non-profit organization that creates Santa Monica’s beloved Nativity scenes has found a new home for their life-size diorama for the 2024 holiday season at 2311 Main Street. The official opening was on Sunday and featured live music, refreshments and a celebration of the 70-year-old festive tradition.
“Santa Monica used to be called the ‘City of the Christmas story,’ it was actually on the patches that the policemen used to wear on their sleeves,” said Kari Czer, of the organizers of Santa Monica Nativity Scenes, adding, “They would close off Wilshire Boulevard, they’d have a parade down Wilshire and then walk all the way to the Palisades Park, where the scenes had been set up that Saturday before and it was a huge deal.”
There are 14 different scenes in total from the story of the birth of Jesus that Santa Monica Nativity Scenes (SMNS) traditionally display: the Annunciation, Joseph’s Dream, the Visitation, Caesar’s Decree, Rest Along the Road, No Room at the Inn, Peace on Earth, the Nativity, Herod’s Court, the Three Wisemen, Presentation at the Temple, Joseph’s Warning, Flight To Egypt and finally, the Return to Nazareth.
Five scenes are currently on display at the Main Street site, the Annunciation, the Visitation, Peace on Earth, the Nativity and the Three Wisemen. The work of the SMNS began back in 1953, when Herb Spurgeon, a local businessman and civic leader, collaborated with Santa Monica churches to create the original displays.
“These days, they've been refurbished a little bit over the years, but it's vintage though, it fits Main Street, in my opinion. You know, it's not flashy or fancy and people are used to big budget light shows these days, but we're at a crossroads, because we don't really want to take away the quietness and the truth of the stories is sold in an old fashioned way,” Czer said.
In September 2003, Santa Monica City Council banned unattended overnight displays from city parks with one exception: two blocks may be used for “winter displays” in December and early January. For seven years, between 2003 and 2010, all 14 of the Santa Monica Nativity scenes were displayed at Palisades Park.
However, in 2011 the City of Santa Monica acceded to the complaints from “an out of town atheist” and the ousting of the scenes from Palisades Park began and only three scenes were permitted to be displayed.
In mid 2012, the Santa Monica Nativity Scene lost a lawsuit against the City Council, despite heavy citizen support and consequently, the Scenes were banned from Palisades Park. But later that same year, all 14 nativity scenes were displayed at the Watt Companies site on Ocean Park Blvd, near Santa Monica Airport. For the next two years, 13 scenes were displayed at Mount Olive Lutheran Church near 14th and Ocean Park Blvd. Then for the next seven years, between 2015 and 2022, the display was presented at Calvary Baptist Church on 20th Street and Broadway.
Last year, no scenes were displayed due to lack of funding, but this year Czer very much hopes it will be the beginning of a new, unbroken run. More information about the scenes depicted and details on how to donate can be found at the website santamonicanativityscenes.org.
“One year, I was setting up the character of Simeon (a priest visited by God who guided Mary when Jesus was a baby) and Mary and Joseph are standing there, and Mary's holding the baby, and so on and this man walks by as we're setting up the mannequins and he says to me, ‘So that's Moses, right?’ And of course I was like ‘Oh, my goodness,’ because nobody knows what the story is, because progressively, as a culture, we've become biblically illiterate,” Czer says.
The story of Moses and the story of the birth of Jesus are in fact separated by about 1,500 years.
scott.snowden@smdp.com
