keeping christ in christmas

Preparing for Christmas, the South County way

This is the third in a four-part series, “Keeping Christ in Christmas” that will highlight Rhode Island Catholics who keep the true spirit of Advent and Christmas alive.

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NARRAGANSETT – At St. Thomas More Parish, where the congregation swells in the summer and recedes to just locals in the winter months, Advent is about preparation.

Father Marcel L. Taillon started preparing for this year's Advent and Christmas seasons in July, months before even department stores had begun to decorate and while the streets of Narragansett were still packed with beachgoers and vacationers.

In July he and several parishioners decide to get their parish ready for Christmas by selling figures of the Holy Family to be placed in lawn creches.

The figures are three feet tall and beautifully detailed, they were pricey – $250 for the three-piece set – but that didn't stop 50 parishioners from buying them for their homes or as gifts. Many even bought sets as anonymous donations to families in the parish who would not be able to afford them.

The sets finally arrived just before Thanksgiving from a studio in California, with only a minor mishap. "We had a problem because the Marys and Josephs arrived, but Jesus was stuck in California," Father Taillon said, "We had to put an Amber Alert out on him," he joked while surveying the boxes of figurines that filled a barn attached to the church.

He is hoping that the lawn nativity sets will start a new tradition in the homes of his parishioners.

Father Taillon and his parishioners did not stop with the lawn nativities. The Men of St. Thomas More, a parish group, sold more than 500 magnetic car nativity scenes to parishioners who want to show their Advent spirit while they travel.

The proceeds from the stickers will benefit a group of Confirmation students who are planning a trip to New Orleans in the spring to help rebuild a Catholic school there damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

The parishioners of St. Thomas More are showing their Christmas spirit on their lawns and on their cars, and that might have been