For most animals, large-scale public Christmas celebrations aren’t a lot of fun. Too much noise. Too many people. Too scary an environment.

But most animals aren’t Ray, Fiona and Tizzy. 

“She’s a natural actress,” said Phil Trundy of his miniature horse Tizzy.

Last weekend, miniature horses Fiona and Tizzy (officially Tiz Simply Irresistible) performed in East Auburn Baptist Church’s Christmas Spectacular. Their part: Walk down the aisle accompanied by a pair of singers and a group of children ringing bells.

Also last weekend, Ray, a black sheep owned by Pebble Brook Pastures in Lewiston, performed in Vineyard Church’s live nativity. His part: Walk with the shepherds and then stand on stage pretending to be a lost sheep found.

“Ray the sheep took to the theater like he was born for it,” said Linda Landry, a decorator for the Vineyard event. 

Not every animal does. Ray was supposed to have been accompanied by Stubby, a donkey. But while Ray enjoyed the limelight (and didn’t mind the strange sights, smells and tile floor of the indoors), Stubby was less than enthusiastic.

“He looked at the floor and said ‘I don’t think so,'” Landry said.

Rather than stress the 10-year-old donkey, who is owned by Andrea Crossman of Brunswick, Vineyard organizers kept Stubby out of the show and let him stay in the small petting zoo set up in another part of the church.

Vineyard had used animals in its live nativity in the past, but it had stopped in recent years while the church moved into a new building and got settled in. Organizers and church members happily welcomed back the animals this year.

“People just flocked out afterward (to the petting zoo),” Landry said.

Along with Stubby and Ray, who went to the petting zoo after his stint on stage, the zoo contained four baby goats and one other sheep, all from Pebble Brook Pastures.

Beth Record, who owns Pebble Brook with her husband, Scott, had no idea why Ray seemed to enjoy the production, standing serenely in front of several hundred people, under a spotlight, on stage. The Records got Ray from his original owner, a girl who hand-raised him. Although he loves people and is very social, they doubted he’d even been indoors before, let alone on stage.

“He may have attended a few fairs,” Record said, “but I don’t think he’s been out in the drama world.”

Tizzy, too, had no acting experience when Trundy, of Buckfield, plucked her out of obscurity to be one of the two horses used in East Auburn Baptist’s Christmas Spectacular. Trundy, who owns nine miniatures, and has been bringing horses to the Christmas show for three years.

At the first show, 6-month-old Tizzy not only seemed content to wear the fake antlers required of the job, but she also enjoyed the jaunt down the aisle.

“She dances to the music,” Trundy said.

Both Trundy and Record said they’d do it all again next year. Record is pretty sure Ray would want to.

When the pasture gate recently blew open, she found Ray at the animal trailer, waiting for a ride to the show.  

Have an idea for a pet feature? Contact Lindsay Tice at 689-2854 or e-mail her at [email protected]. 

Beth Record of Lewiston prepares to bring one of her lambs, Creamy, on stage to be part of the live nativity Christmas production at the Vineyard Church in Lewiston on Friday. Shepherd, who owns the Pebble Brook Pastures farm, also furnished some goats for the pageant.

Joe Derocher of Auburn watches Chrystel Woodsum of Auburn put a pair of antlers on Fiona, a miniature horse, prior to going into the East Auburn Baptist Church on Saturday afternoon for their production. The horse, owned by Roundabout Farm in Buckfield, shares the stage with another miniature horse.

Phil Trundy coaxes his miniature horse Fiona out of her trailer prior to going onstage at the East Auburn Baptist Church Saturday afternoon, where she is one of the stars of the production.