Open-air Christmas

No live nativity is a bummer, but not a problem at St. Armands Key Lutheran Church this year. Eager to still use their outdoor space to spread Christmas cheer, the church set up lights and decorations in their meditation garden and invites anyone walking by to take a stroll and find some peace. 

Local artist Truman Adams, who also did a mosaic wall at Church of the Redeemer in downtown Sarasota, provided two paintings for the garden. The church still brought out its decorations and fake animals to create a scene around Adams' art.

"We thought we would just try to do something different," member Christine Ortiz said. "We have a lot of decorations so we thought we could set up scenes so people could walk through the garden and it would be pretty and peaceful. It came out pretty good for the first year. We're happy with it despite not knowing where we were going."