Living nativities demand camels

When it comes to living nativity scenes, nothing makes a splash like a camel.

Yes, you have your sheep, and they are fluffy and warm when it is cold outside. They definitely have a place at the manger because the angels appeared to the lowly shepherds. You have the donkey, which is comic relief, and also Mary and Joseph had to get to Bethlehem some way and they probably parked their camel at the manger.

But nothing welcomes the newborn baby Jesus more than the camel. The camel’s size, majesty, and innate dignity make it a star attraction.

Camels have been part of Christmas for hundreds of years.

Even the first president George Washington rented a camel for the Mount Vernon Christmas party in 1787. He paid 18 shillings, about $900 in today’s money.

In Egypt, Baba Noel (Father Christmas), a fat man in a red suit with a white beard, can sometimes be seen near Cairo shopping districts riding — of course — a camel, bedecked in carpets and dangling balls, according to the Washington Post.

Nothing in the Bible tells us about a camel at the manger, but throughout the centuries, people assumed there must have been one because of the Wise Men.

The Bible says the Wise Men, sometimes depicted as kings, came from the east following a star. They gave the baby Jesus three gifts: Gold, the treasure of a king; frankincense, a fragrant resin used for perfume and offerings to God; and myrrh, a resin used for fragrance, medicine, and even embalming, according to Christianity Today.

The gifts from the Wise Men were expensive and only available on the Arabian peninsula or Africa. Therefore, people figured the Wise Men arrived on camels: Three gifts, from three Wise Men, on three camels. That’s how it has worked out in common lore, but every piece of that can and has been disputed.

The one thing we know about the Wise Men from the Bible is that they weren’t snitches. The evil King Herod wanted the Wise Men to report to him when they had found the baby Jesus. But the Wise Men were way too wise for that. With the dignity of their silent camels, they found Jesus, then snubbed the king and slipped away home.