It was a simple social media post that turned into a something more. Last week, Bonnie Luke of Cornelia saw scenes of The Nativity painted on the windows at her hometown Burger King. She snapped a quick photo with her cellphone and shared it on Facebook.
“Thank you Burger King in Cornelia GA for representing the true meaning of Christmas with your window displays.”
Now Habersham saw it, shared it and, well, here’s the rest of the story…
Nearly 10,000 people liked the photo on our Facebook page and it was shared hundreds of times. An Atlanta TV station saw it and sent a news crew to do a story on it.
A similar social media post about Christmas windows at a McDonalds in Tenessee went viral.
The Cornelia Burger King is co-owned by brothers Johnny and David Irvin. David’s wife Elaine reports for Now Habersham.
David Irvin says they’ve been painting Nativity scenes on the windows of their Burger King restaurants in Northeast Georgia since they first opened in Cornelia in 1985. The scenes are painted by Tom Ingraham and his daughter Christy Bowen who, Irvin says, have been doing their paintings for many years.
The reason is simple, he says, “We do this because Christmas is the time of year we celebrate the birth of Jesus.” Irvin adds, “I hope that people get as much joy from the paintings as my brother Johnny and I have had in getting them painted.”
Based on reaction, it seems that they do.
Luke says she shared her picture of the windows on Facebook because she was touched by their beauty and meaning. “I thought, well, everybody’s always posting stuff that doesn’t relate to Christmas. My true meaning of Christmas is what they have in those pictures.”
Shocked to hear her photo got so much attention, this older generation social media user (she’s a grandmom) says she hopes her Facebook post and the painted windows will open the door to someone asking about Christ.
After all, she says, that’s what Christmas is all about.
“Christmas is all about Christ and when you start taking Christ out of Christmas it becomes a fairytale. You take Christ out of Christmas and all you’ve got left is the mess.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves, Bonnie.
Thanks and Merry CHRISTmas!
