Be careful not to light any candles near the manger

There was story on the Today Show this morning concerning a nativity display at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London. There is a controversy over the museum's use of celebrity figures in the nativity, including David Beckham and Posh Spice as Joseph and Mary. The concept of Blasphemous Nativity Scenes suddenly reminded me of a scene in "Blackadder's Christmas Carol":

Baldrick: I've been helping out with the workhouse nativity play.

Ebenezer: Oh, of course! How did it go?

Baldrick: Well, not very well -- at the last moment, the baby playing Jesus died!

Ebenezer: Oh, dear! This high infant-mortality rate is a real devil when it comes to staging quality children's theatre. What did you do?

Baldrick: Got another Jesus.

Ebenezer: Oh, thank goodness. And his name?

Baldrick: 'Spot'. There weren't any more children, so we had to settle for a dog instead.

Ebenezer: Oh, dear. I'm not convinced that Christianity would have established its firm grip over the hearts and minds of mankind if all Jesus had ever said was "Woof."

Baldrick: Well, it went all right until the shepherds came on. See, we hadn't been able to get any real sheep, so we had to stick some wool...

Ebenezer: ...on some other dogs.

Baldrick: Yeah... and the moment Jesus got a whiff of them, he's away! While the angel's singing "Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Mankind," Jesus scampers across and tries to get one of the sheep to give him a piggyback ride!

Ebenezer: Scarcely appropriate behaviour for the son of God, Mr Baldrick. Weren't the children upset?

Baldrick: Nah, they loved it. They want us to do another one at Easter -- they want to see us nail up the dog.

I have no other point here, really. I just consider any excuse to post Blackadder dialogue a good one.