It took two 25-lb. turkeys, two maple-glazed hams, 15 lbs. of potatoes, 6 pints of gravy and plenty more food for Donna Simpson to consume a 30,000 calorie Christmas meal, but the New Jersey mom should have started with this meat nativity scene as an amuse-bouche.

Several cocktail wieners enrobed in deli meat stand in for Joseph, Mary, Jesus and the three wise men, all of whom can enjoy the comforts of a manger that has walls of breakfast sausage, a bacon roof and a floor covered in sauerkraut shredded potatoes (i.e. straw). Those pretzel sticks jammed into additional cocktail wieners stand in for sheep (we think).

This work of food art is the brainchild of Greg Chow and his meat-loving friends. Every year, Chow hosts a sausage-making party, literally a “Sausage Fest,” in his Brooklyn apartment, an event documented on Tumblr blog We Meat Again.

“Every year we try to come up with a theme for the party, just to keep it interesting beyond the usual grinding of meat and stuffing of casings,” Chow says. “A few years ago, the fest fell on what I found out was the 12th day of Christmas, so I decided to create the Meat Manger in honor of that.”

He thinks the sausages used to make the diorama were likely Lit'l Polskas from Hillshire Farms, but his mind is too meat-muddled for him to be sure. It all happened so fast. One minute he and his pals were joking about making an edible Jesus and the next, their meat nativity scene was an internet sensation.

While some may find it offensive to see their lord and savior rendered in bacon and breakfast sausage, if the Creator of All Things hadn't wanted it to be thus, (s)he wouldn't have created bacon.

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