Kanyakumari | The Christmas crib extravaganza in this Tamil Nadu village will also feature Elon Musk this year

Palapallam village in Kanyakumari district has been making large theme-based Christmas cribs for 25 years now, attracting visitors from near and far

I am in Palapallam village in Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari district two Sundays before Christmas, and a group of workers toiling away to create the biggest Christmas crib they have made yet, is finally taking a break.

With just the scaffolding in place, the structure is nearly two storeys tall. New statues of concrete that will tell the story of Jesus Christ through the Old and New Testaments are lying to dry in a fresh white base coat. The old figurines, including those of angels, apostles and kings, waiting to be painted, are all huddled in a corner looking like they are ready to throw a punch at each other.

Among them stands a headless statue of what is going to be Elon Musk. A laminated picture of him is placed next to it as a reference. Soon, Musk will welcome the people of Palapallam and the visitors who come to see the mammoth Christmas crib.

“Isn’t Elon Musk creating a brain chip to be embedded into people’s head? In my view, they will soon start to add and delete our thoughts with the click of a button. It’s a sign of our impending doom,” says R. Helden Selvakumar, treasurer of the Winstar Sports Club in Palapallam, echoing popular sentiment about the entrepreneur who has been making daily headlines ever since he took over as Twitter CEO.

For 25 years now, the organisation with over 250 members has been making large theme-based Christmas cribs usually representing a site of importance to Christianity or concepts from the Bible. The display is open to the public from December 23 to January 1. In the past, they have made structures based on Noah’s ark, heaven, hell and the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

By Christmas Day, this makeshift building of straw, iron, wood, cement and plaster-of-Paris will be lit up in all colours. A 25-cent plot nestled between a row of nondescript houses will have metamorphosed into Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock — a historic site of significance to Muslims, Jews and Christians.

“This is the biggest one we have made yet. It is our 25th year of making Christmas cribs, and we have decided to go all out, setting aside a budget of ₹25 lakh. Our aim is to have people experience a day at the Dome of the Rock,” says N.C.J. Balakrishnan, secretary of Winstar, adding that a few cribs from previous years too will feature in this edition.