Ohio Man’s Zombie Nativity Scene Likely In Its Last Year

CINCINNATI, OH — A Nativity scene outside Cincinnati that combines the Christmas story with the ghoulishness of Halloween is back by popular demand, even though the creator initially said he wouldn’t put up the Zombie display this season. Sycamore Township officials have tried in the past to shut it down, and Jasen Dixon did seem poised to acquiesce, but after an avalanche of emails, he brought the undead back.

From a distance, the display with 20 LED lights “looks like the most beautiful manger scene you’ve ever seen,” Dixon told Patch. But a closer look reveals that Mary and Joseph are zombies. So is the baby Jesus. The wise men? Yes, they’re all zombies in what Dixon says is the world’s first zombie Nativity scene.

More people love the diorama than hate it, Dixon said.

“Catholic people love it,” he said. “Baptist people hate it and tell me I’m going to hell and how terrible I am.”

Dixon wants to be clear on one thing: He’s not an atheist, and he’s not promoting atheism with his display. His wife, Amanda, is a devout Catholic and their children attend Catholic school. Dixon turned down an invitation to speak to the Freethinkers atheism group. For Dixon, it's a matter of artistic expression.

“We have no agenda,” he said. “We’re not making any kind of statement. Everything is handmade, right down to the manger. It’s a big arts and crafts project for our family.”

The display went up for the first time in 2014. Dixon, a home improvement subcontractor, has a “13 Rooms of Doom” haunted house business and was late taking his Halloween display down, so he let the seasons merge.

He had to convince his wife, though. Amanda Dixon, a nurse, said “absolutely not” at first, but warmed to the idea, her husband said. The condition is that he give any proceeds from the sale of zombie Nativity T-shirts and other donations to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, which provides treatment free of charge to children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases.

"She likes writing that $1,000 check," he said.

Among the zombie Nativity haters are some Sycamore Township officials who “found every means they could to get me to take it down” in its first years. In 2015, he was fined $500 a day for 27 straight days — that’s $13,500 worth of fines — after officials said the display violated zoning laws that prohibit auxiliary structures — for example, the manger. The charges were eventually dropped.

At that point, Dixon got a lawyer, who argued he had a First Amendment right to put up the display. Several prominent attorneys contacted Dixon and wanted him to sue the township for harassment or religious infringement.

“I said I wasn’t interested,” he said. “I’m not interested in suing anybody over that.”

He wasn’t fined in 2016, and doesn’t think he will be this year.

Still, the display is controversial. In 2015, Indiana pastor Paul Begley called it “blasphemy” in a YouTube video, which also criticized a “Snaketivity” display at the Michigan capitol put up by The Satanic Temple’s Detroit chapter.

Dixon said a record number of about 100 cars stopped to view the zombie Nativity Friday night. “We had close to that Saturday, and people were stopping by as late as 3 in the morning, taking drunken pictures with the wise men,” Dixon said.

Once the holiday season is over, Dixon plans to put the zombie Nativity up for sale. Inquiries can be made on the zombie Nativity Facebook page.

Photo courtesy of Jasen Dixon