Experience a Dickens Christmas this year!
Gateway Christian Church hosts 2nd annual free festival
The sights and sounds of a storybook Victorian village will come to life this December as Gateway Christian Church hosts its 2nd annual Christmas at Gateway Dickens Festival. This free event, which is open to the community, will run for four days, from December 14th to December 17th, and offer more than 20 activities that families can enjoy together, including:
· a Christmas Tree Maze with a live nativity scene in the middle
· a Nativity Museum with more than 100 nativity scenes on display
· several interactive Victorian Shoppes
· live performances featuring beloved Dickens characters
· puppet shows
· old-fashioned carnival games
· candle dipping
· hayrides and much more.
“This year, I really wanted to make the festival packed with fun things for kids and families to do,” says Kelly Flores, the event coordinator. “We saw how the children were so excited by the candle dipping last year, and we brainstormed ways to have more of those types of activities for kids and adults alike. Thanks to the hard work of our congregation, we’re thrilled to be able to offer snowflake cutting, gingerbread house making, wreath decorating, scavenger hunts, I Spy games, family photo opportunities, craft demonstrations and several more activities that you’ll have to come see.”
It takes a village
All of these activities will be centered around the massive Victorian Village built right on the church parking lot. Last year, Gateway members built a façade of eight buildings that measures 120 feet long and 16 feet high. “We’re pretty proud of last year’s buildings because our church had never done anything on this scale,” says Mike Biggs, church elder and overseer of last year’s construction. “When it all went up and was decorated, the buildings looked amazing.”
This year, the village will be twice the size of last year’s facade. The First Christian Church of Phoenix, Ariz., has presented a similar Dickens festival for the past several years, but they have since decided to develop a new holiday event. In October, they graciously donated all of their Victorian Village buildings, including a free-standing chapel, a firehouse, a livery stable and a mill with a real working water wheel, to Gateway.
“The new buildings are so well built; they even have roofs that we have to put up with a crane,” says Mike Biggs. “We’re really blessed by this donation, especially when you consider the time and tens of thousands of dollars that went into creating these beautiful structures.”
The buildings, which are visible from 270 between Clayton Road and Manchester Road, will be hosted by costumed “villagers” and feature historically inspired crafts and entertainment, creating an unforgettable winter atmosphere that will transport visitors back to the days of Charles Dickens and the classic tale “A Christmas Carol.”
An event with purpose
While the Dickens Festival promises to be fun and entertaining for people of all ages, its main goal is to provide an opportunity for Gateway and its members to share Christ with St. Louis and the surrounding areas during the holiday season. Karl Schad, Gateway’s associate pastor, explains, “We want the people who come to our festival to know that we love them and that we want them to share in our joy this Christmas. We’ll have a lot of fun things to do and see here, of course, but at the center of everything will be the love of Jesus Christ demonstrated by our people.”
This idea of keeping Christ at the center Christmas will be beautifully illustrated through the Christmas Tree Maze. In the middle of an outdoor maze of fresh-cut pine trees will be a live nativity scene, which will symbolize how Christ should be at the center of life’s maze.
“I think I am most excited by the Christmas Tree Maze,” says Flores. “People in this area are used to seeing corn mazes and hay mazes; I don’t think they’ve experienced a maze done with trees. This promises to be one of the festival’s highlights, and it is sure to send a clear message to anyone who enters it.”
The maze, the crafts, the village, the costumes – all provide an opportunity for telling others about the reason for the season. “I know it’s sometimes difficult to tell a stranger, friends or even family about Jesus Christ,” says Karl Schad, “but it’s pretty easy to invite those same people to a free holiday festival. Once they’re here, we can share with them the meaning of Christmas through our activities, our drama presentations, our musical and our open hearts.”
For more information about this exciting event, visit Gateway Christian Church online at www.gccstl.org or call the church office at 314-821-2156.