This week marked the 18th year that the West Point United Methodist Church has put on its live nativity scene.

It has become a staple of the Christmas season in the West Point community and beyond, and has turned into appointment viewing for the area as a whole. The church is currently in its third iteration of the stable itself, as the first one was tragically broken when it fell out of the back of a moving truck and the second was not large enough to house all the necessary characters. The scene represents one of the many in the area that provide local flavor to the holiday season.

The live scene has a long and interesting history. One year, the live goat that was involved with the production escaped, and had to be chased down Seventh Street by one of the shepherds. The weather has also provided difficulties at times, but each year the show has gone on, save one year where temperatures become too cold to sustain it.

The scene is one of a handful of local attractions during the Christmas season. One of the most well-known of those attractions being the Merry-Go-Round located in nearby Valley, Alabama that routinely sees more than 70,000 riders each Christmas season. The carousel is visited each year by families who make annual treks to the site, carrying out family traditions that are decades old in some cases.

These two examples are only a small fraction of the effort the local community makes toward celebrating the holiday season. Downtowns are lit up in the evenings, businesses are decorated and the general sense of holiday cheer is robust. The effort the local communities put into celebrating the holiday season, along with the unique local attractions, help create the pleasurable holiday ambiance that we have all come to enjoy. The communities should commend themselves for the effort put into ensuring the holiday season is celebrated and appropriately acknowledged.