The Kemptville Christian Reformed Church held a special family event on Sunday December 6 in the spirit of the Christmas season.
Organized by Youth Ministry Coordinator Tori De Shiffart, the event was set in Bethlehem and included five stations each with a different theme. The fisherman’s peer, toyshop, wool trader, spice shop and bakery all had their own character and unique activity for kids to do.
Tori says they first decided to do something for Christmas because many children and their families were really missing the programming that the Church usually provides. Tori found the template for the event from a church-based organization called Group and adapted it to be COVID-19 safe.
The original event was meant to be group-based, but in order to ensure participants’ safety, they organized the evening into three different time slots. Only five families were allowed in the Church at a time, and each family unit went through all the activities on their own. Tori was extremely happy with how many families signed up for the event, with 14 groups filling up most of the time slots. While the majority of the people were members of the Church, Tori said they did have two families from outside the community who participated. “We are a smaller church so that is a great turnout for us.”
Tori said it was great to see some of the children from the Church who she hadn’t seen for months because of the pandemic. She felt it was important to hold some type of event at the Church this year to lift people’s spirits and allow them to have fun and be social in a safe way. “We wanted to make a space for families in this time to create a Christmas COVID memory.”
