Image via Screengrab / Instagram.
A Cape Cod artist crafted a Nativity set perfect for New England: Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and others are depicted by lobsters. It certainly isn't the first time a Nativty has been swapped out with other creatures, but it's causing some debate on so-called "Catholic Twitter."
Leviticus 11:9-12 and Deuteronomy 14:9-10 ban the consumption of sea creatures that lack both fins and scales, granting Old Testament protection to crustaceans like lobsters.
Still, that wasn't the inspiration behind Rosemary Quantick's Lobster Nativity, which has been for sale for a few years but has recently gained notoriety online.
Speaking to the Cape Cod Times last year, Quantick, an English immigrant, explained that her motivation was her adopted home of the Cape and the New England love of lobsters.
The Nativity set is encased in a lobster trap, rather than the manger and baby Jesus rests in a clam shell on a bed of seaweed.
Agnostic Faine Greenwood, a civilian drone mapping technology and GIS/spatial data consultant, said on BlueSky that she bought the Nativity set, prompting both chuckles and questions from followers.
"King of the Crustaceans," celebrated Kenneth Freeman.
One follower called it "Christaceans."
"With all due respect to you and your faith traditions ... what the f——?" asked author Sarah Day.
Greenwood explained she is agnostic, and was raised by other agnostics, "which probably explains a lot."
However, Christopher Roberts, a self-described "Christian raised by (sadly) Christian nationalists," also fell in love with the lobster Nativity.
Assistant Professor Brittany Sutherland, who teaches at George Mason University, wondered how something like that would play in the "deeply Catholic parts of Louisiana."
"On the one hand," she continued, "lobsters are pretty close to crawfish and Cajuns know their edible aquatic bugs. On the other hand, eating Crustacean Jesus seems pretty significant in the sin department."
That said, Transubstantiation is the Catholic belief that during the Eucharist, the bread and wine change into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ. Holy communion is a sacrament in most Christian churches and symbolizes the sacrifice Jesus made for the sins of man.
Real estate lawyer Maggie Hooman asked "Catholic Twitter" whether they found the Nativity offensive and got some mixed answers. Most who indicated they were Catholic found it funny or acceptable but "tacky."
John Grondelski, conservative foreign policy specialist and Catholic theologian, answered, "Yes, because the Christian message of the Nativity is Incarnation — God became man, not Sebastian the Lobster. Maybe 50 years ago, as a kid, it might have been cute in a kitschy/tacky sort of way, but human embodiment is under such attack that diluting the Incarnation is wrong."
He later added, "we have an Incarnation problem today — and since religious scenes shape minds, I do not want the Savior to be thought of as a shape-shifter."
A few folks on X asked about whether it was considered offensive. Gabriel Said Reynolds, a Crowley Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology at Notre Dame, polled his following. The majority agreed it was "blasphemy."
In its report, the news and culture site Denison Forum commented, "A 'Lobster nativity scene' on Cape Cod challenges perceptions of Christmas. Consider the profound humility of Jesus, who chose to become human and sacrifice his own 'life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.'"
An Israeli resident questioned, "Can lobster Jesus walk on water?"
Dan Turrentine, co-host of The Huddle, said he planned on getting the lobster Nativity for former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, a devout Catholic.
Several remembered the Nativity scene in the film "Love Actually," which featured a Christmas play in which the daughter of one character, played by Emma Thompson, was "First Lobster."
"There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus?" she questioned.
Meanwhile, the Church of Lorb, has embraced the lobster Nativity. The faith describes itself as "conscientious creators with plans to create and worship our Leviathan Lobster God. Lobsters don't die of old age and typically can't keep up with their gigantic size as they continue to grow and molt their shells. Together we can make a difference. The faith's mission is to help save the planet."
The lobster Nativity is available online for $114.90.
Lobster Jesus: Sacrilege or the most New England Nativity ever?
The Lobster Nativity scene. (Photo courtesy of Chris Alfonso)
Bob SmietanaDecember 10, 2025
RNS) — Drive down the Mass Pike, on Route 128 around Boston or over the Bourne Bridge toward Cape Cod, and you’re likely to see billboards touting the ultimate New England Christmas tradition.
The Lobster Nativity set.
Even if you don’t buy one, the billboards will bring a smile to your face, says Chris Alfonso, the 25-year-old entrepreneur who sells the crustacean Christian display.
“And I think in this day and age, we all need something to laugh about,” said Alfonso, who has been selling the set, where all the characters of Christmas — including the baby Jesus — have been transformed into lobster figurines, since 2023.
Rosemary Quantick, an artist based on Cape Cod, first came up with the idea of replacing the manger with a lobster trap in 2019, as a way to pay tribute to her adopted home. “I wanted to create something that was representative of New England, the place that had become my home over the years,”
Quantick told the Cape Cod Times.
The Three Wise Men ornament. (Photo courtesy of Chris Alfonso)
Alfonso, a friend of Quantick, took one look at the first set that Quantick made and told her she should try selling them. He’d interned for a company that helped inventors get their product to market — and thought they could help her. Eventually, Quantick had about 1,000 sets made and began selling them for Christmas in 2020. She sold about 100 that first year, then 100 more the next year. Things took off in 2023, when Alfonso started helping her sell them at a Boston Christmas market. He eventually bought the rights to the sets and started selling them online and at a holiday market.
He got a break last year, when a TikTok video about the sets went viral, and he sold about 2,500 sets.
The current version of the Nativity features the usual suspects, said Alfonso. There’s baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, a shepherd, three wise men, a sheep, a camel, a cow and a little drummer boy (“I know he’s not in the original Nativity,” said Alfonso).
All are displayed in a lobster trap that is painted gray and weathered. The whole set sells for about $115 online. There are also Christmas ornaments with the whole Nativity set or just the Holy Family or the wise men . Alfonso, who grew up Catholic, said he gets some mail from folks who think the set is sacrilegious. But most people get the joke — and even the folks who send hate mail are usually polite, he said.
The set was also inspired by a scene from “Love Actually,” a 2003 British comedy set at Christmastime. In the film, a character played by Emma Thompson is surprised when one of her children has been cast as the “first lobster” in her school’s Christmas pageant, having never heard of biblical shellfish at Christmas.
“There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus?” she asks.
“Duh,” her daughter replies in the film.
That scene comes up almost every time Alfonso sells a set at the Christmas market. “I think about playing that clip in a booth on repeat sometimes, because it’s just so funny,” said Alfonso.
The Lobster Nativity scene booth at a holiday market. (Photo courtesy of Chris Alfonso)
The Lobster Nativity isn’t the only New England Christmas tradition to feature lobsters. Communities from Rockport, Maine, to Stonington, Connecticut, feature annual displays of Christmas trees made of lobster traps and covered in lights. Christmas shoppers can also get Nativities that feature cats, rubber duckies, Peanuts characters and even 3-D printed “Star Wars” figures, along with more traditional displays.
Vanessa Corcoran, who teaches medieval history at Georgetown University, said the tradition of Nativity displays dates back about 800 years, to a Nativity set up by St. Francis in 1223, with a manger, ox, donkey and a carved baby Jesus. The tradition took off from there.
Nativity displays today are often seen outside churches at Christmas. Every year, the Vatican unveils a custom creche, or Nativity, that is often themed and sometimes made by a marginalized group. And many families have home Nativities they pass down from generation to generation.
Occasionally, Nativities can veer into political territory, like one outside a church near Chicago this year that included a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids or the “Christ in the rubble” displays the last few years, which drew attention to the plight of civilian Palestinians in Gaza.
And then there are the displays that include live animals — camels, donkeys, sheep. The animals do occasionally get loose, like a pair of cows that escaped from a display in North Carolina in 2023.
Nativities have provided Christmas cheer, as well as disputes over politics and the separation of church and state, and for a while, even inspired a series of pranks where people stole the baby Jesus.
Corcoran said many Nativity sets reflect the environment where they are made or displayed, with figures that resemble people in that culture. And in-home Nativity displays remain popular, in part because they make the divine more accessible.
“It offers the opportunity to bring a visual representation of the true Christmas story into one’s home,” she said. “Christian tradition emphasizes that God sent his only son as a baby to save the world. Jesus as a baby is a humble and relatable figure.”
The Lobster Nativity scene. (Photo courtesy of Chris Alfonso)
Alfonso has big plans for the future. He’d like to see a Lobster Nativity in every house in New England. After all, he said, lobster is essentially a religion in that part of the country. And he’s enjoyed the chance to make people’s holidays a little brighter.
“I’m a part of people’s holidays,” he said. “People put this display out, they send me pictures of them decorating it, and they’re going to pass it on to their kids.”
No comments:
Post a Comment