 Hello, and welcome to a real conversation between two native English speakers. I'm Adam Navas, and with me is Liz Wade. Hello, Liz. Hi, Adam. Today, we're having a conversation about the Spotlight Program Making Nativity Scenes. If you haven't had a chance to check out that program in either the classic or advanced version, make sure you look in the, not comments, in the description for this video, and we'll have links for that. If you have already listened to that program and you want to hear kind of some thoughts, some processes, a conversation about that, you are in the right place. And as always, please like and subscribe to this video. That really helps us, and if you want to take your English learning to the next level, click that little join button, and you can learn about some of the benefits that you can receive becoming a member of this YouTube channel. You'll be able to get request scripts. You'll be able to get some special badges and emojis and exclusive content as well. So that's a really great option for you. Please check that out. If you want to get scripts via email for a couple bucks a month on our website, Spotlight English... I got like dollars. Dollars. I'm just messing with you a little bit, because bucks is like a funny way to say dollars. Yeah. We all, we got to make sure, we could talk about different names for money sometime. That would be a good idea. Yeah, we should. There's a lot of different words. Yeah, we should. And yeah, so go to our website, SpotlightEnglish.com, click that little button, scripts by email. So, Adam, when you were introducing this program, I noticed something kind of odd about how you did that. I heard you say making nativity scenes. Nativity. Now, I would say, yeah, nativity. Say it again. Nativity. Nativity. So, making nativity scenes. A nativity versus nativity. I think if you can, if you're listening to this and you can hear the difference between what we're saying, you are doing really good in your English comprehension. Yeah. Because there is a subtle, we are doing vowel sound differences here. Yeah. So, I'm going to really enunciate it. So, you say, nativity. And I say... Nativity. Yes. Nativity. Yes. Nativity. Nativity. And A, so those really different sounds. Yeah. Well... Anyways, that's a really, that's a thing that I had never noticed that you say, nativity. Well, if you didn't think English was already hard enough, you can have two people who live in relatively the same place and pronounce words differently. I wonder which one is like correct. Mine. Obviously. It's obviously yours. So, throughout this program, you're going to hear us say, nativity and nativity, well, I don't know which one is right. Yeah. It might be one of those things that's just a little bit regional. But we're in the same region. Well, I mean kind of. Kind of. How could we be... I don't know. We're not in the same city, but we're definitely in the same region. I'm just trying to make it feel better about being wrong about how you say nativity. Fair enough. So you're welcome. Fair enough. You've... All right. So let's go on to what is a nativity or a nativity scene? So a nativity scene is associated with the holiday of Christmas. So this is not something that happens all year round. It is roughly a reconstruction, but a... Kind of like... Yeah. What's the word I'm looking for? A little sculpture or... A model. Figurines. Yeah. A model of some... Yeah. It could be various sizes, right? A model of what people think the birth of Jesus Christ, Christ Christmas, was like. So let's go through some of the characters who would be in a nativity scene. Right. And I think it's important to say that I think a basic nativity scene has to have at least three figures. Okay. And that's... Who are the core people? We've got baby Jesus. Right. So baby Jesus. And then Mary and Joseph. Who are... Who would be Jesus' parents, right? Right. But there are much bigger nativity scenes than that. You mean bigger in size and in cast of characters. Right. Exactly. So the amount of people... So in the Christmas story, which we do have a great like reenactment of the Christmas story in our programs. And so you can check that out. It's called the Christmas story. So that's really easy. And then it's like a play almost that you can listen to that story. But that will introduce you to all of the characters in the Christmas story. And sometimes all of those characters are represented in a nativity scene, this model of Christ's birth. So sometimes there are shepherds and angels. While shepherds and their sheep. Right. Okay. Shepherds and their sheep. These are angels or other animals because the birth of Christ took place in the stable. So there could be cows or sheep or... Donkeys. I don't know, chickens. Basically domesticated animals. Yeah. Farm sort of animals. Animals that people would use for their milk or meat or whatever. And then so shepherds and their sheep and angels. Right. Frequently there's at least one bigger angel that's part of the scene. There might also be wise men. And usually there's three wise men, but there could be more or there could be fewer. Am I missing any? Those are the big ones. Yeah. And of course the little drummer boy. No, I'm just joking. Yes. Well, you actually... You raise a good point, which I don't know if it was touched on in the script itself. So this is a little extra. Yeah. Nativity scenes are something that has spread around the world. And I know this because I have a friend who collects nativity scenes from different countries. And they all have a slightly different spin or take on what's included, what animals, what the character's skins look like and how they're posed and what their facial features are like. And I think that is one of the things that is really... The story of Jesus coming to earth is to bring hope to the whole world. And I really like how that gets played out in different people making those nativity scenes because we don't know honestly what baby Jesus looked like or what all the other characters who is exactly there. There's a story in the Bible that tells us some of that, but we don't know what that looks like. So that's really exciting when I see those different representations. Yeah. I agree with you. I love seeing... Excuse me. There is a... What would you call myer gardens? Botanical garden? Yeah. Sculptures and things. And this botanical gardens every year puts on a show of different Christmas trees around the world and different nativity scenes. And I do... I love seeing those because some are placed in different situations and some are very typical and some are very colorful and some are very plain. Yeah, there's all different kinds. Yeah. It's a great... You know, there is a tradition of in art of westernizing, of making baby Jesus and Jesus's family and his whole life very look very European, which, of course, he was lived in the land of Israel. He was not European. And so I think having those multiple representations makes me think about like, oh, yeah, what was that story? What was that like? So do you set up a nativity scene at your house, Adam? I think we have one. But OK, so that's a good question. We do have a couple. My kids have made one out of clay. Really? Yeah. And so every year, they made a different figurine. That's kind of cool. So they started... I think they started with the baby Jesus when they were very young. So it's very crude, but as they get older, of course, their skills get better. So the camels are great, but... Camels were last year. Camels were last year. So they add to it every year. And that's kind of a fun little tradition that they have. Yeah, that is great. What about you? Actually, I never grew up with a tradition of setting up a nativity scene in my house. And I have not started that tradition in my house now. So we actually don't set up a nativity scene. Although I do love a nativity scene. I just feel like it's such a great little picturesque moment. Such a, I don't know, just a reminder of peace. Yeah. You know, there is maybe... I mean, I know that you have had kids. After the birth of a child, when you are just sitting there with that new baby and everything is good and the baby is good and everything is calmed down. Yeah. It's just such a sweet moment. Yeah. And I think for me, that is a really powerful image of a nativity scene. Yeah. Well, we also... But we don't put one in my house. I feel like I haven't found the right nativity scene. And also we don't really have a space in my house to put it. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. Because you kind of have to have like an area of your house that you set up and made. Right. I'm not personally very big into any kind of decorations. So... What? That's so surprising for you. Yeah. My plain t-shirts and my... Well, we can't end this conversation without talking about an element of this program, which is big nativity scenes that are not just the small models that might be in your house, but people recreate a really elaborate using humans, right? Right. So you might... In the program talks about a whole town that gets together and creates really the whole Christmas story. But I think more common, at least where we live, is to make a living nativity scene for a few hours. And you just have maybe even people just sitting there, or you walk along a little path and you see different scenes. But yeah, they would use maybe a real baby and with a mother and father and shepherds and, I don't know, maybe even some real sheep. We went to one that had a camel. I don't know where they got a camel from, but... The zoo? They had a camel. Yeah. I have actually... I've never been to a living nativity scene. No. Have you? Oh, yeah. You blessed us because I had people in it. Well, because it was during COVID, it was like a drive-through. So you kind of went to different spots. Drive-through nativity scene? It was okay. It was my kids, you know, we were all looking for stuff to get us out of the house. Yeah. It's kind of... Yeah. I think it would be an interesting experience, but I don't know. I feel like maybe it just wouldn't be as powerful as a still example for me. Well, there's something, and we have this with a... You might have listened to our spotlight program. When you pick an image, so you have to have someone be Mary and Joseph and these characters. When you pick a person to be that person, when you hear it as an audio, when you're hearing the story, everybody gets to participate that. And they kind of imagine what those people might think of. And that's very powerful. And there's actually something odd, and it takes away from a bit of that power when you have to pick this, when you have to pick a person, which is why maybe you have a favorite book that when you see it in the movie, you're like, oh, that's not exactly how I would... Yeah, that's not what I imagined. It's not what I imagined. And maybe there's something with that too. Yeah. Whereas the small figurines are okay, because you're like... I don't know. You can still imagine them. Yeah, you can put your own... Like what you were talking about being very peaceful and serene. Like you brought that to that moment. You took part of yourself and brought that. That is true. And that's great. Well, before we end this program, I also want to remind people that we have a video where I make a nativity scene. So you really can see all of the pieces of the nativity being put together. And I explain a little bit of the story. So we set up the stable and we set up the baby Jesus and the manger and Mary and Joseph and Shepherds and Wisemen and angels. So you can check out that video as well if you want to see someone actually making a nativity scene. Yeah. That's great. I'll have to check that out myself. I haven't seen that one in a while. It's a good one. And as always, well, first of all, if you have a nativity scene, please let us know in the comments. If you would like to, if you've ever been to a living nativity scene, let us know where it was and kind of who was there and did you have to walk or did you drive through? Or if you would want to see one. Or if you'd want to see one. Just let us know. We're always interested in what you are experiencing and thinking and just what's going on in your life. But of course, you can make those comments on Facebook or in the comments here on YouTube or on our website. While you're there, make sure it'll follow us and like us on those social media pages. Is there another social media where they can Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube? Find us wherever you are. And our website. And our website. We're always pushing people to our website because we think it's pretty great. And again, make sure you like and subscribe, hit that little notification bell. And yeah, until next time, listen, watch, practice and learn, spotlight out.