Telling the story for the 30th time

There are so many versions of the “real meaning” of Christmas—kindness, generosity, neighbourliness; family, food and gifts; and, in our part of the world, end-of-year parties, carols by candlelight, summer holidays and trips to the beach or other outdoor adventures. 

All of these are good things, worthy to be shared and celebrated. But most of what we think of as “Christmas” is relatively recent in comparison with the 2000-year history of retelling the story of Jesus’ birth as the beginning of the central event in Christian faith. After all, we still count our years roughly from the year of His birth. Since that time, there have been various forms and celebrations of a season each year in which the story of His birth is retold. 

So, if we are looking for the “real” story of Christmas, we can’t get closer to the original than telling that story again. And perhaps spending some time thinking about why this ancient story has been so transformative in the history of our world and remains so powerful for so many people today.

the early years

Each year, a group of more than 600 volunteers in suburban Melbourne get together to create as “real” a Christmas as they can, titled “Road to Bethlehem” (RTB). This year is its 30th year and together they will retell the story of the birth of Jesus to about 15,000 members of their community in a unique walk-through experience held over four nights on the grounds of Edinburgh College, Lilydale. 

The current chair of the organising committee for Road to Bethlehem is Alicia Ralph. She first volunteered as an actor in 2000 and has been involved ever since, including this being her third year serving as the committee’s chair. As she leads the team in preparing for this year’s 30th RTB, she promises some new features for visitors, but also feels she has come to appreciate the story of Jesus’ birth more intimately as a result of her time with RTB.

“Each year, the committee begins meeting in February,” says Ralph of the almost year-long cycle, “and not only are we upgrading our website and new experiences, but we are also praying together and thinking and talking about the Christmas story. And I think there’s something very beautiful about that, which comes with spending more time than you typically would thinking about the story amid the busyness of all that happens in December.”

going beyond Melbourne

This year, similar RTB programs will take place in at least five other locations around Australia and New Zealand, although prior to the limitations of the Covid-19 years, as many as 10 other locations have run RTB programs in various years, all borrowing inspiration and adapting their formats from the original
Melbourne program. It has also received awards from local governments and other entities over the years, recognising its creative contribution to their community.

Road to Bethlehem began with two rain-soaked nights in December 1995, and with a team of about 30 people and some 700 visitors on what was an old church campground—which has since been redeveloped—in the Melbourne suburb of Nunawading. 

“The first year was very basic,” original RTB committee member Carolyn Dunne recalls. “With so much water gushing across the campground there were many discouraged team members, but somehow we saw the potential. We could see and feel there was something about this idea—and the difference between the first and second year was incredible.” 

Her father, Geoff Jones, had seen a news report of a drive-through Christmas experience presented by a church in the United States. Given the mild summer evenings in Melbourne, he suggested the idea could be adapted for a walk-through program in Australia and he talked with leaders at his local church. 

“The original committee of four had no idea what we were doing, no idea of how it would be received and no idea of what it could become,” Shelley Fairall explains. “But we saw the opportunity to share the story of Jesus with the community. Now I see that first year as a bit of a test—a reminder that we needed to trust God with this.” 

the cast

Each year the lead role has been reserved for a roster of babies less than three months old, coordinated and cared for by Fairall for many of those years. “We are very passionate about using a real baby. There is something that connects with people when they hear a baby cry; they connect the story with a real human being, a live connection between the Baby in the manger with the Man who died on the cross,” she says. “So we’re always putting out a call for babies at this time of year. There was one year when we were low on babies and one of our team went to a local shopping centre and spoke to mothers about whether they would be prepared to share their baby with the community in this way.” 

“We have all felt that this whole program has been so God-led,” Dunne adds. “In the early days there seemed to be so many miracles, so many ways God provided and encouraged us, so we have been very blessed in our years of working with this.”

three decades of impact

Thirty years later, more than 200,000 people have experienced Road to Bethlehem. The two years of Covid-19 restrictions were a creative challenge for RTB, with the program adapted into different online video formats with varying interactivity in each of those years. While these were not a complete replacement for the RTB experience, these were opportunities to connect with tens of thousands of people in diverse places around the world—and to continue to re-tell the story of Jesus’ birth, even in those challenging years.

Another current member of the team is Shane Winfield, whose first RTB experience was as a visitor in 1999 but who ended up coming back each night for that week to help with kids’ face-painting and then to assist with packing the sets away at the end of the week. Over the years, he has played a variety of roles at the event and in its preparation each year, including creating the distinctive illustrations that RTB has used in its invitations, advertising and signage—and two of his children have played the role of the Baby in the manger in their respective years of birth.

While today much of his work is behind the scenes, his highlights have been when engaging with visitors as a welcomer. “It is such a joy to hear kids get excited about learning and seeing the nativity story come to life,” Winfield says. “It is a real buzz to see how much the public enjoys it.”

For Winfield, RTB offers a contrast to so much of the other noise around Christmas. “Road to Bethlehem is different, because the focus is on the Baby,” he explains. “That is the main focal point of the whole RTB program: we are reminding or introducing people to the story of Jesus’ birth and what that means for them. It calls for a reflection on the gift God gave us through His Son and our response to that.”

“There’s something that’s very special that happens in the manger scene,” adds Ralph, describing the culmination of the 45-minute walk-through story where the visitors finally meet the newborn Baby Jesus.

However, Ralph also recognises that, in our diverse community, different people will take different things from their RTB experience. “I think that one of the reasons Road to Bethlehem is so successful is you can take what you need from it.”

In detailing the various elements of the RTB experience, she is demonstrating the intentionality that goes into its planning. “From the beginning, you’ve got this sense of being welcomed. And there’s a warmth in that front area where people are laughing. There’s music playing. There are things you can do regardless of your age or ability, whether it be to get into the photo booth, have some food, and to sit down and chat. 

“And then, as you walk through, you can be entertained by the soldiers and some of the other characters you meet on the journey. Then there’s the invitation to be moved, and to open your heart to experiencing Jesus. And then there’s the opportunity to go to the prayer tent to be prayed for.

“So, what am I hoping people get from it? You know, exactly what they’re looking for.”

So in the 30th year of Road to Bethlehem, the team are preparing to tell the story again, but also sharing memories of the 30 years of experiences with their many volunteers, visitors and members of the community. “We’re planning some different moments where people can connect and reminisce,” says Ralph. 

With a program of such a scale and nature, there will be inevitable challenges, but organisers have only needed to cancel programs one night because of weather over the 30 years. “There will also be opportunity for praise for the ways that Jesus has shown up for Road to Bethlehem over a long period of time,” she explains. “And there are so many stories of the weather forecast looking like serious storms, but the storms end up going around where Road to Bethlehem is located.

“I think it’s such a nice moment to look back and praise God—to appreciate and recognise and celebrate, because there had been a lot of sweat and tears—and Jesus—in all of the 30 times.”

For more information, to book tickets or to find the Road to Bethlehem program closest to you, visit roadtobethlehem.org.