OBSERVER P{hoto by Cynthia Littleton Mary and Joseph in the manger while King Herod looks on. From St. Peter's Episcopal Church's Christmas Eve in a Barn service in at the Double D.A.B ranch in Ripley.

The faithful came to Bethlehem by way of Ripley Saturday evening as St. Peter’s Episcopal Church of Westfield held its fourth Christmas Eve in a Barn service.

The service recounted the Christmas Story, mostly in song with the help of St. Peter’s members and friends playing the roles of Mary, Joseph, King Herod, the Three Wise Men and assorted angels and shepherds. The atmosphere at Ripley’s Double D.A.B. Riding Stable couldn’t have been more evocative of that fateful night more than 2,000 years ago.

Sheep, goats, dogs, horses, donkeys and one very animated llama added to the chorus of sounds that enlived the stage play, narrated by Libby Cardy-Sciarrino with musical accompaniment on a portable keyboard by Karin Cockram. Even the wail of a fussy baby or two in the audience fit right in with the spirit of the tale.

The Double D.A.B.’s large barn was beautifully outfitted with lights and holiday decorations. It was chilly inside the barn, just as it must have been for the two scared teenagers who attended the birth of Jesus in a manger behind the inn.

“Now we know why Jesus wasn’t born in Western New York,” said Rector Virginia Carr of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Westfield. “It’s too cold.”

The audience sitting on hay bales around the stage joined in for hymns including “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “The Angel Gabriel From Heaven Came,” “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” and “Silent Night.” After offering communion, Carr reinforced the reason for the season in her closing words.

On a night like this, more than two thousand years ago, the world was changed forever,” she said. “May our hearts be changed, and may we never be the same from this moment forward.”

Christmas Eve in a Barn drew about 50 people, including serveral first-timers. One of those, Jim Blanchard of Westfield, said he hoped to make it a holiday tradition.

“It was so heartwarming,” Blanchard said. “It was very nicely done.”