- [Narrator] The prairie land of northern Indiana, rich farmland that stretches on mile after mile in a bleak winter landscape.

(festive music) But here and there, the land is broken by farms and small towns, such as Twelve Mile in Cass County.

A small town like most, except for one weekend in December, when Twelve Mile becomes host to a minor miracle.

That miracle is the Living Christmas Pageant, a series of living tableaux depicting traditional and Biblical scenes, staged in and around the local park.

Not unlike similar events in other places around the country at this time of year, but there's something special about the way they do it in Twelve Mile.

- During the beginning to the end, we have approximately 500 people that have something to do with this pageant.

Whether it's some lady baking cookies to feed the characters, cleaning the outfits, the costumes that we use.

During the night of the pageant, we have approximately 200 characters that put this on, plus our live animals.

It's quite a lotta people involved.

We've had great response from people that wanna help in surrounding cities, New Waverly, Logansport, Peru, Rochester, Metea, just outlining areas from around here.

- [Narrator] Besides needing more than double the number of local inhabitants, the Living Christmas Pageant at Twelve Mile is special for a couple of other reasons.

It's one of the oldest around, having been started in 1971, and now in its 23rd year.

There's no admission fee.

And it's only done on one weekend each December.

- Well, it is quite an enormous task to put this on.

And to keep that many people assigned to the different scenes is almost impossible to do it past two nights.

We've had it three nights before, and it's just real hard to keep that many people with other activities going on for the Christmas holidays.

- Twelve Mile is a community where there seems to be a lot of cooperative spirit among, there's a lotta doers in this little town.

And so anyway, they got it started, and then it just kinda grew from there, you know?

You know, there's a lotta pride in it.

Once you've seen it accomplished and see the, you know, as you stand back in the scenes and when you work behind the scenes, you see the interest of the people and the enthusiasm that has grown.

And it's fun.

All these folks are good folks.

They're fun to work around and be with.

(bright music) - [Narrator] It's nearly sunset, and the first shift of characters are about ready to take their positions in and around Plank Hill Park.

Keith is off with the volunteer firemen checking on traffic.

And Karl is donning his Wiseman outfit, ready for another night.

The characters work in half-hour shifts because of the cold.

Although tonight, temperatures are only in the 30s.

It has approached near zero with 10 inches of snow on the ground in past years.

Whatever the weather, at 6:30, the cars start through.

- [Keith] Last night alone, we had 'em from New York, Texas, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky.

We keep track of the license plates as they come through, and we count the vehicles.

- [Narrator] On the night we were there, I spotted cars from Peru, Fort Wayne, South Bend, even Indianapolis and Greenwood, as well as one from Ohio.

All these folk traveling so far just to see the efforts of some local people to celebrate Christmas.

And not a refreshment stand or souvenir shop in sight.

All this is paid for out of their own pockets.

Not even donations are asked for.

But unfortunately, even Twelve Mile, Indiana isn't immune from modern life.

- [Keith] Well, we had a little theft.

We lost all of our colored spotlights that illuminate the scenes and our speaker wire for our PA system that we had to replace this week.

And it was quite a lot of money that we had to spend to get it put back together.

But never knew it was missing last night.

Everything was back just like it was.

- [Narrator] The pageant is over for this year, but Keith, Karl, and the others are already making plans for next year's show.

Some of the backdrops need to be replaced, and a new lighting system is still needed.

But this year's pageant has been a success, and everybody seems to have had a good time.

I said earlier that a minor miracle occurs each year here at Twelve Mile.

Maybe that's a little strong.

But there's still something very special about so many people working so hard just to let others know how very wonderful this time of year is to them.

♪ Take the girls tonight ♪ ♪ And sing this sleighing song ♪ ♪ Just get a bobtail nay ♪ ♪ Two forty for his speed ♪ - [Narrator] For more "Across Indiana" stories, go to wfyi.org/acrossindiana.

(light music)