Seasonal (in)sanity

On the front page today (A1): an article about Christmas pageants and their perils. Normally I wouldn't post on this, except that several blogging cohorts have done posts exploring a slightly different aspect of this topic (Aurora: here and here. The Stiletto: here. MK: here.) The article, by Dionne Searcey, explores a sadly-funny aspect of this season: beasts conspiring (?) against us to ruin live Nativity displays. Some examples:

• In NJ, at Fellowship Baptist Church: "Mary and Joseph were headed for Bethlehem when the donkey hauling the Virgin spooked, bucked her and bolted. Joseph frantically jumped on the donkey's hind end but fell off and got caught in the reins. The creature kept going, dragging Joseph behind for several hundred feet before it finally settled down."
• "At First United Methodist Church in Tuckerton, N.J., two years ago a camel noticed that the thatched roof used to create the stable setting was made of tasty evergreen branches. It ate nearly the entire roof." [Mmm, mmm, good!]
• "[A pastor] was a victim of a sheep gone wild one year at Fellowship Baptist's living nativity, which still features a small flock of the wooly mammals. [One might question the wisdom of this...] He tried to stop the fleeing sheep by squeezing it between his legs and ended up going for a ride, backward, before falling off."
• On disturbing the flock: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Santa Margarita, Calif., has banned infants over 4 months old from acting as the Baby Jesus character. "Too wiggly," says a church spokeswoman." [Yes, the LDS accepts Jesus' humanity, but little else...]

Kinda makes you wonder how much you'll enjoy Christmas this year.