Woman Creates Realistic Nativity Scene Entirely From Cheddar Cheese

O holy (and delicious) night! Sacrilegious or not, one nativity scene in the U.K. is getting a lot of attention these days, and it's made out of... unusual sculpting material. Prudence Staite, a food artist from Gloucestershire, in the U.K., was commissioned by Pilgrim's Choice cheese to create a traditional nativity scene entirely out of Cheddar cheese.

Some might call that a dairy dilemma, but Staite accomplished what many thought to be impossible, sculpting the scene out of 88 pounds of Cheddar cheese. The entire process took five days, and the detail down to the facial expressions on Mary and Joseph, and the Three Wise Men bearing gifts of miniature pickles for Baby Jesus, is exquisite.

The entire piece is held up by dozens of cocktail sticks, with shredded cheese being used as the straw for the floor of the barn. The characters in the scene, which include two donkeys, two sheep, and a cow in addition to the holy family, were all sculpted from cheese that had been softened in a food processor. Once the figures were made, they were refrigerated to allow them to re-harden. Prudence even had to use a magnifying glass in order to properly create the tiny features on baby Jesus' face.

The cheesy sculpture will be on display this month at the Chill Factore indoor skiing resort in Manchester.