{"id":7846,"date":"2025-11-20T16:40:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/20\/the-living-christmas-story-returns-december-5\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T16:40:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:40:03","slug":"the-living-christmas-story-returns-december-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/20\/the-living-christmas-story-returns-december-5\/","title":{"rendered":"The Living Christmas Story returns December 5"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"120\" data-end=\"337\">Union United Methodist Church will once again bring the town of Bethlehem to life as it hosts the 32nd annual drive-through living nativity, <em data-start=\"261\" data-end=\"289\">The Living Christmas Story<\/em>, December 5&ndash;7 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. each evening.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"339\" data-end=\"635\">For more than three decades, the church&rsquo;s parking lot has been transformed into a re-creation of the night Jesus Christ was born &mdash; offering the community the chance to witness the story from the comfort of their vehicles. The tradition is a free gift to the community, with no admission required.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"637\" data-end=\"1132\">The Living Christmas Story features real people from the Irmo area &mdash; along with live animals &mdash; portraying scenes from Bethlehem. As vehicles make their way through the display, visitors encounter villagers, a blacksmith, the innkeeper, Herod&rsquo;s court, a bustling marketplace, and many other depictions that bring the biblical narrative to life. The presentation has become a cherished holiday tradition for thousands; over the past 31 years, more than 167,000 visitors have experienced the event.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1134\" data-end=\"1544\">Traffic will be guided by the Irmo Police Department and church volunteers. Carpooling is encouraged. Guests may also avoid the line by riding a Union UMC church bus through the event; buses will depart from the parking lot between Lizard&rsquo;s Thicket and O&rsquo;Reilly Auto Parts at the corner of St. Andrews Road and Thames Valley Road. Union buses and institutional vehicles with logos will receive expedited entry.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1546\" data-end=\"1702\">To learn more about <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/view\/thelivingchristmasstory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em data-start=\"1566\" data-end=\"1594\">The Living Christmas Story<\/em><\/a>, visit the event website. For information about Union United Methodist Church, visit the church&rsquo;s homepage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Union United Methodist Church will once again bring the town of Bethlehem to life as it hosts the 32nd annual drive-through living nativity, The Living Christmas Story, December 5&ndash;7 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. each evening. For more than three decades, the church&rsquo;s parking lot has been transformed into a<span class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/20\/the-living-christmas-story-returns-december-5\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32],"tags":[156,426],"class_list":["entry","author-john-griggs","post-7846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-events","tag-the-living-christmas-story","tag-union-united-methodist-church"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gpstrianglenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/TheLivingChristmas-Story_2023_630x350.jpg?fit=630%2C350&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}