The address line in Brenda Phillips' checkbook, announcing her home on Lonoke County's Bethlehem Road, draws familiar eyes just about anywhere she goes in the state, Phillips says.
It's not just the biblical connotations that cashiers and tellers often recognize, Phillips said, but memories of seeing the Christmas Story retold in lights and displays down her 2-mile stretch of rural county road.
The Christmas Road to Bethlehem, which is in its 29th year, has become a popular annual draw for those who drive by to see the nearly 30 hand-crafted displays, each depicting a segment of the story of Jesus Christ's birth, which light up the front yards of their host homes, all leading toward the culminating Nativity scene at the Bethlehem United Methodist Church.
Drawing heavily from the Scripture in the Gospel of Luke, the plywood cutout scenes feature a cast of characters surrounding the birth, such as the three wise men, King Herod and the angel Gabriel. Each house, for the most part, centers on a section of Scripture, placed in chronological order along the road.
Every year since her mother, Jeaneane Nipper, helped start the tradition in 1987, Phillips, 59, has been among a handful of church leaders who dutifully haul the scenes out of storage, take inventory on any missing angels or maimed camels, and find families who will place the scenes in their front yards, along with an illuminating spotlight throughout each night of the Christmas season.
Helping to orchestrate the annual project is JoAnn Abshure, 72, who is affectionately referred to by many of the church's parishioners as "grandma" but who takes pride in declaring herself "the boss."
Digging through records and newspaper clippings about the Nativity displays kept in a plastic storage container, Phillips and Abshure said it's never been hard to find willing participants, even as families moved away from the area and homes along the road increasingly became occupied by renters.
"I think the big thing was going up and down the road and talking to people in the community and saying, 'Here's the idea we have, what do you think about it?'" Phillips said. "Everyone was like, 'Yeah, we would love to do that.'"
Not all the families who agree to host the church's displays are members, and for those who have worries about the electric bill, the church can provide assistance, Abshure said.
"It's almost like a privilege, I think, to have one in our yard," said Tammy Tedford, 47, who does not attend Bethlehem United Methodist, but has hosted a display since she moved to the community 12 years ago. This year, her yard features an orange and purple-robed King Herod seated next to the text of Matthew 2:8.
Tedford said her grandfather-in-law favored a display featuring a small cutout of a black sheep, but she said she prefers ones marked with scripture. It's pleasant, she said, to sit in her living room and watch the cars outside slow down to see the displays.
Locals have become accustomed to passing the visitors along the road, Phillips said, and the only complaints she says she has gotten over the years were from a family who was tired of getting the black sheep after it was passed on from the Tedfords.
Of the 10 families who participated the first year, only three remain, according to Abshure, though the total number of participating families this year was 25.
Still, Abshure said, that number has been higher in years past, and the church has a few unused displays remaining in storage this year.
The more daunting task, nearly 30 years out, is upkeep on the displays, Phillips said. Many are originals made by her uncle, Billy Davis, who drew the stencils using pictures from an old children's Little Golden Book, which is still kept around the church. While Davis still draws at his nursing home in Beebe, it's fallen on others to craft new images or repair old ones.
When there were questions last year about whether there was enough enthusiasm -- and funds -- to maintain the displays and continue to place them every year, Abshure and Phillips held a gathering at the church over pizza to gauge interest. The overwhelming response, through volunteers and donations of supplies, the pair said, was to keep going.
"I guess however long Brenda and I are around, it will be here," Abshure said.
Asked if they had ever considered pitching their Christmas road for a spot on reality TV -- such as ABC's The Great Christmas Light Fight -- the women turn to each other and laugh at the prospect, before agreeing that the show probably is not right for them.
"It's not that kind of thing," Phillips said. "It's more humble, like Jesus was humble."
This year, the displays will be open and lit through Jan. 1. They can be seen by turning onto Bethlehem Road from Arkansas 31 south of Butlerville.
Metro on 12/26/2016