Christmas Designs

Travel from Afar

Adam Carmichael from Santa Cruz Bible Church in Santa Cruz, CA brings us this Christmas horizon.

This design was inspired by Christmas cards that show a distant, silhouette of Bethlehem and the manger scene.

The design is fairly simple. They built the scene in three depths. The farthest layer was the one with the Bethlehem city silhouette in the upper left. This one layer spans the width of the stage. The second layer was the one with the wise men and the manger. It was situated on the right side of the stage and sat ~2.5 feet in front of the back layer. The foremost layer had the bigger palm trees and was situated on the left side of the stage around 2 feet in front of the second layer.

They used black foam core to shape everything. The layers were supported by short skeletal walls built from 2x4s and mounted to the floor.

The star field was a piece that they’ve had for a while. It’s made of black filter fabric with mini lights poking through.

A Rainbow Christmas Tree Planks

11 responses to “Travel from Afar”

  1. Angela Hoffman says:

    Great job! Very effective visually!

  2. Steven Hall says:

    This is great! Amazing work Adam. You should be super proud of your team!

  3. Great job Adam. Love the overall atmosphere it creates.

  4. Laurie Whitcomb,St. James Church,Davis says:

    We are going to try and copy your design for our Christmas auction. So, on December 7th your creation will be the setting for our event.
    I am tech challenged. Can you describe how you did the lighting AND can you post a picture of the 2X4 bracing you used,if you have one.

    Many thanks,
    Laurie

  5. heather kugel, Hillcrest bible church says:

    What is the thickness of the foam core sheets, how tall is the back one and how tall in the front section. would like to try this for christmas.
    Thanks,
    Heather

    • Adam Carmichael says:

      Hi Heather,

      We used 3/16″ foam core. So for the back layer, I stood the sheets on end, making them 8′ tall at the highest point. The front section sheets are layed on side, so 4′ tall at the highest point.

      Hope that makes sense.

      Good luck!

  6. Deanna says:

    Awesome design. Did you paint the black foam core or does the color just come from the lights?

  7. Leslie says:

    Where did you buy your foam core that big? I have been looking and can’t find 8 foot tall foam core.

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