The cast of the living nativity after the show. /Credit: Annie Ropeik

Kids at Unalaska’s United Methodist Church got to tell the story of Christmas in a unique way Wednesday.

It was the annual living nativity -- part holiday pageant, part Christmas service.

Fifteen elementary school kids from the congregation dressed up as wise men, shepherds and angels. They came forward as their parts in the story were told. There was even a baby playing Jesus.

Pastor Dan Wilcox helped lead the show.

Wilcox [shouting over kids]: "Angels in the second to back row!..."

"Normally we have an argument over who’s Mary and who’s Joseph," he says. "But this time it was who’s gonna be the angels and shepherds, instead."

Wilcox [narrating]: "As the angel choir withdrew to heaven, the shepherds talked it over. 'Let’s go over to Bethlehem as fast as we can!' They left, running -- [silence; nobody moves] running... [sound of giggles and scurrying] ... and found Mary and Joseph and the baby..."

"We call it a live nativity, although they normally involve live animals," he says. "We don’t do that here, mainly because we don’t have many camels on the island."

[all singing "gloria" from "Angels We Have Heard on High"]

"We really do it for the kids, because I think it’s important for them to learn the Christmas story," he says. "I think by acting it out and telling the story and singing the hymns and the carols, that it helps them know what the story is."

The living nativity is part of Kids’ Night Out, a weekly after-school get-together for children at the church.