For the second year in a row, the town of Hodgeville's "Night Jesus was born" nativity scene event will be a virtual video rather than an in-person event.

Began twelve years ago with around 120 nativity displays from private collections, the last in-person seasonal display had swelled to 1,100 from all areas of the world, displayed from collectors of nativity sets from a number of towns in the southwest.

Anne Barkman is one of the founding members and contributors to the event and continues to be involved with it every year since.

"We started in the smaller church. But we outgrew the facility and we have now set up in the Hodgeville community hall. The last one we had in 2019, we had over 1,100 scenes."

When COVID forced most in-person events to either cancel or adapt, Barkman said that organizers decided to change how things were presented. They reached out to a professional photographer and, utilizing photos taken of the displays, created a virtual tour video for people to enjoy from the comfort of their homes.

This year, with COVID still present, they've made the decision to continue in that fashion, re-posting the video to their Facebook page, and beginning to plan for next year in the hopes that we'll be closer to normal by then.

Barkman said that she certainly hopes so, and is eager to go back to the traditional in-person event.

"We're just really looking forward to next year and hoping that we can set up again. The ambiance is unbelievable. The Christmas music. The smell...we serve apple cider and hot chocolate and Christmas goodies. The whole atmosphere is just amazing."

To see the video, click here