Bartow farm’s camels star in Nativity scenes

OK. So, three wise men and a camel meet the Baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary in a Hooters restaurant in Georgia.

No, that is not the opening line of a joke. It describes Scott Allen’s hectic life during the holiday season.

Enlarge this image

Bob Andres/bandres@ajc.com

It’s the busiest time of the year for the animals at Pettit Creek Farms in Cartersville. Camels are big crowd-pleasers.

• Photos
• Send us your nativity photos!

Who do you call if you need a camel for your Christmas photo — like the Kennesaw Hooters — or animals for your church’s living nativity, or if you are Larry the Cable Guy and want a one-humper for your TV Christmas special?

You call Allen.

Santa and the North Pole got nothing on Allen’s Pettit Creek Farms outside Cartersville. Forget “On Dasher, on Dancer…”

“We got Sammy, Solomon, Clyde,” Allen says. “We got Brie, Jill, Cracker, Merlin, Bell, uh, Rogue, and, let’s see. Is that 10?”

Nope, nine.

“Hmh. Oh yeah, and we got Muncie.”

The Allens also have enough sheep and goats to stock nativities from Bethlehem (Ga.) to Rome (Ga.).

“We’ve got donkeys, we’ve got the proverbial cow,” he says.

Shepherds in robes, a.k.a. animal handlers, come as part of the animal rental.

“Yeah, they blend in. People just think [shepherds] are the village street sweepers,” Allen says.

But the camels are the big draw. Especially the two yearlings, or babies, as he calls them.

“They are hot items,” Allen says.

Whether in a nativity or on the farm, where visitors can enjoy a mile of Christmas lights, people love to pet the camels. And the camels don’t mind, despite their groaning and blubbering.

Their verbalizations are just camel conversation, Allen says.

“We ain’t got a spitter in the bunch,” Allen says, talking like a proud papa.

Hopewell Baptist Church near Woodstock knows the value of a good rented camel, as well as donkeys, sheep, shepherds and chickens. It will spend $8,000 on Pettit Creek animals for its nine-night Christmas extravaganza called Back to Bethlehem. The walk-through village has shops, homes, a two-story city gate and a cast of more than 250 biblical characters (“Hay-ul Caesar!” drawls a Roman soldier in last year’s video). It drew 18,000 visitors last year. But the baby camel was the must-see, a kiddie magnet.

“We book him a year in advance. We don’t want anyone getting our animals,” said Daina Holland, a program coordinator at the church.

At the Atlanta Salvation Army Christmas concert and nativity scene, 21st-century families grin and pose for pictures with Pettit Creek’s 1st-century wise men and camels.

“People like to use the pictures for Christmas cards,” said Lafeea Watson, an organization spokeswoman.

Christmas and Easter, those holidays when churches put on big biblical plays, are the busy time of year for Pettit Creek. During the rest of the year, the animals stay busy giving rides or being petted at community festivals.

Allen didn’t decide to raise camels to become a fabulously rich sheik of suburbia. He began 10 years ago when a church called to ask if he had a camel in his petting zoo and if it could it be rented for an Easter program.

“Uhm. Sure, we have a camel,” he replied. After hanging up, he began to search for his first.

A few days later, Allen found Sammy in Alabama. As the church program was to be held inside, Allen brought Sammy home and began walking him through his great-grandmother’s empty house to acquaint him with walls and doors.

Soon, calls were coming from all over, and Allen began adding to his stock. And, of course, big camels make little ones.

The Allens bottle-feed the babies to help them get used to humans. The little ones are inquisitive and sweet-natured.

“As they get older, it’s not that they don’t like you. It’s just, they have moved on, you know?” Allen said.

Allen said the zebra and other exotic animals such as African porcupines in his zoo are interesting.

“But the camels are my favorites,” he said.