Photograph by Essdras M Suarez

“The kids were very excited about holding the stars,” says Globe photographer Essdras M Suarez, who covered Trinity Church’s Christmas Eve pageant last month. “Some were whacking their stars against other stars.” The children weren’t members of a cast – all the little ones in the congregation were invited to come up to play the part of stars at the end of the pageant. Barred from using his flash, Suarez worked with the available light shining straight down. “Because the kids were looking up,” he says, “the light falls on their faces.”