John Carroll will host their third Festival of Lights in about six weeks. This annual event brings in guests from the Harford County community and beyond to celebrate the Christmas season.
On the evening of December 7, JC will open its doors between 4 pm and 8 pm to any member of the community who wants to come admire the decorations and participate in activities.
Hallways and doors throughout the building will be decorated in the time leading up to the event. Festival of Lights gives advisories the opportunity to showcase their door decorations.
All club trees and advisory classroom doors will need to be completed by December 6. Earlier that week, there will be some extended advisories to provide time for decorating.
During the event itself, there will be places to get pictures taken with Santa, ride the Polar Express train, and see a train garden. Visitors may also tour the three floors in the academic wing to see the decorated doors.
Festival of Lights is a special event because many clubs and organizations within the school community come together to put on the event.
The PTA will host a Mrs. Claus’ Kitchen with Christmas cookie decorating in one of the classrooms.
Students from the National Honor Society have already signed up to volunteer at the Festival of Lights. NHS President Natalie Gotzmann said, “We conduct face painting for children and set up a Whoville scene. Members of NHS are always excited to take part in this event and always look forward to the hundreds of people who attend.”
The music department will put on several performances throughout the evening singing Christmas carols in the chapel. They will also have singers greeting guests as they arrive.
The dance program, a major sponsor of the event, will host a craft station in the cafeteria.
Dance teacher Laura Ward-Moran said, “The dance program volunteers their time and resources to help the children who attend the event create crafts. We create different stations each with about 15-20 crafts so the kids can rotate and complete a bunch of different crafts.”
The Learning Commons will be transformed into a Winter Wonderland with decorations handmade by architecture club students.
The Student Government Organization also is a large contributor to the Festival of Lights.
They help with the administrative side of the event as well as organizing volunteers, working elevators, and showing guests around the school. The SGA purchases many of the decorations as well as the shirts for all of the student and faculty volunteers.
New additions to this year include a Tropical Sea Christmas area and a Frosty’s First Pitch.
In the courtyard, the Peer Ministry will perform a Living Nativity several times throughout the evening.
“We have a prayerful rendition of a Nativity using scripture passages from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Peer ministers dress in costume and act out the scene while another Peer Minister narrates the story using the words from The Bible,” said Director of Mission and Ministry Ken Goedeke.
Deacon Goedeke continued, “One of the best things about the Living Nativity is that it gives people who are watching a way to envision the story. The actors help people enter more deeply into the story — almost as if they were there watching it happen in real life.”
The Campus Ministry department also lets guests take home the blessed straw as a visual reminder of the birth of Jesus to be placed in their own Nativity scenes.