Whether it's a traditional nativity scene or one with every animal imaginable, Christmas nativities are everywhere this time of year.
Pat Starr from Farmer Brown's Party Animals is playing a part in the creation of these nativity scenes by allowing organizations in the community to rent animals from him for their scene.
Starr said they started renting animals for nativity scenes four or five years ago after his son got a camel.
"He wanted a camel just to have it as a pet," Starr said. "Somebody else found out about it (and) they of course wanted to use it for a nativity and that's how it started rolling."
Organizations around the community can call Starr and choose which animals they want for their nativity. They provide a variety of animals including goats, donkeys, the camel, a cow, sheep and alpacas.
"It started off with just one (place) and now it's, you know, five, six, seven places," Starr said.
Fran Loftin, volunteer at the Phenix City Sports Council and Parks and Recreation, said they used Farmer Brown's Party Animals for their nativity scene at a carnival this month. They rented a baby goat, an adult goat, alpacas, llamas, a bull, a miniature horse and baby rabbits.
"There's a Bethlehem donkey that Mary rode on and they had two of them this year at the carnival," Loftin said. "What we do is we put a hay circle around and put the rabbits in there and sit the little children there. We start our story off there with the Christmas story telling about these are baby rabbits, but we're also going to learn about another baby named Jesus and he was born in a stable with animals just like this."
Loftin said when Santa rode by the children didn't even turn from the animals because they were so excited to be seeing them.
Rebecca Harris, special events coordinator for Parks and Recreation, said the carnival was six hours and the animals stayed the whole time.
"It was a huge success, the children absolutely loved the animals," Harris said. "I think that's probably the favorite thing we do."
The camel, goats and rabbits were the children's favorite, according to Loftin.
"We had a little baby goat out in front of the pen, but any of the animals you can put your hand up and just feed them," Loftin said. "This year the camel was so sweet, he would lay his head on your shoulder and look at you and smile."
Loftin said they started renting animals from Starr two years ago, and it has made their nativity scene much more hands on. Starr brings food and hand sanitizer so people can feed the animals.
If an organization needs the animals for more than one day, Starr said they pack them up and bring them back for the next scene.
"The animals are so tame, it's just really wonderful to watch the children interact with them," Harris said.
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