Do you remember the Three Wise Men who used to appear each year in the Chapel windows during the Christmas season? As they reappear this year, in a new form, we thought it would be fun to share the history of these gifts to our church.

In the late 1980s, Pat Mann traveled to Green Lake, Wisconsin, with a group of FAB members for a music conference. During her free time on the trip, she sat by the lake and sketched the Magi on small pieces of paper. Soon after her trip, a group of Huntington’s downtown churches joined together to create Christmas scenes as a gift to the Huntington community. It was decided that FAB’s contribution would be to display the Three Wise Men in the three windows of our Chapel. But, how would they be created? The entire church rallied together in this project! Pat transferred her Three Wise Men from paper to large pieces of muslin cloth that were about 160” tall and 60” wide. She laid out the stained-glass design and numbered each portion to create a paint-by-number project. For the next several weeks, the FAB family gathered together to paint the Magi onto the cloth. Members of all ages took pride in this paint-by-number project. Once on the cloth, Mike Shaver and Cabell Glass encased them in glass and Duncan Box Lumber Company framed them with heavy oak frames. Roger Sizemore assisted with AEP bucket trucks to mount the glass pieces onto the windows each year. Floodlights were installed to shine on the windows and highlight what FAB called “The Gift of the Magi” for all traveling along Fifth Avenue to see.

FAB’s display of The Gift of the Magi was retired in the early 2000s, as setup had become too cumbersome. But, this year, The Gift of the Magi returns in a new format. The large panels overlaid with glass, weighing hundreds of pounds each, have been modernized. In November the pieces were laid out in Smith Hall, and Paris Signs brought a drone to church to capture high-quality images and specific measurements of the three window frames. The Three Wise Men in the stained-glass pieces have been reimagined onto a lightweight material, and The Gift of the Magi is again displayed in the Chapel windows for all on Fifth Avenue to enjoy.