By Jeff Perrine

This season, Thanksgiving and Christmas, is one of my favorite times of the year! It always brings back fond memories of family and friends and the creation of new memories each year when experiencing the season afresh.

And this Christmas season, as in seasons past, we have a slate of events to help your family experience Christmas and create warm memories in a very real and tangible fashion.

The first event is Deck the Halls our annual decorating party for our sanctuary, foyer, children and student spaces. This year we will be decorating on November 28 and 29 from 5:30 until 9:00 pm. You can find out more about it, as well as register to attend, on our website. We’ll be serving food that evening, so please register so we know how much food to buy.

Next up is Adventures in the Holy Land, a class being held by Mark Ziese, a real-life Indiana Jones with an extensive background into the archeology, dig sites, and history of the Holy Land. At the end of the class, he will be highlighting a trip to the Holy Land sponsored by Mount Carmel in the summer of 2023. The class is on November 30 from 6:30-8:00 pm. You can register for the class on our website.

On December 17, Mount Carmel Students will be having their annual Christmas party from 5:30 – 8:30. It will be an evening of fun, food, games, prizes, music, and a gift exchange. If you have a high school or middle school-age student, all are welcome!  Go ahead and let us know you are coming by registering at mountcarmel.org.

Families with preschool and elementary children are invited to a surprise baby shower for Joseph and Mary on December 18 from 5:00-6:30 pm at our event called Oh Boy We Can Hardly Wait Family Christmas Party. Bring a baby gift for Mary and Joseph that will be shared with A Caring Place ministry. This is an event for parents and their kids to experience together. You can register your family to come on our events page.

For Christmas weekend, Mount Carmel will have 4 candlelight services you can choose to attend. On Christmas Eve, services will be held at 3:30, 5:00, and 6:30 pm. On Christmas Day there will only be one service at 11:00 am. All services will feature the lighting of candles and the singing of Silent Night. The Sunday service will be identical to those on Christmas Eve and will add in receiving communion. This year, so we can better prepare for your visit, we are asking people to register for the service they wish to come to at this link. All services will be streamed online.

Finally, if you are purchasing a gift for The Giving Tree, those items are due on December 11 in order to prepare it for the family who is receiving it. There are still gifts on Amazon you can purchase for families by visiting this weblink.

We wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas!