Our Community Christmas Eve

Our 2025 Community Christmas Eve Service was truly beautiful — filled with wonderful music, an incredible (and frequently hilarious!) improvised pageant, and of course, the reason we were all there: to hear the Christmas story.

The evening began with 30 minutes of special music from the choir, under the direction of Lynn McRuer, accompanied by Margaret Fleury, with special guest Stanley Szymkow on saxophone. We were also treated to a lovely cello solo by Leanne Ziler, impressive piano solos by three young grandchildren of Pat & John Graham, and a song written and performed by Karen Murray-Hopf. The music portion concluded with Michiko Bown-Kai's dad David Kai providing an amazing jazz version of 'Go Tell It On the Mountain' with percussion accompaniment by kids in the congregation!

Rev. Michiko provided engaging narration for a delightful script that had the entire congregation enthusiastically supplying the sounds of the animals in the stable — a role everyone embraced with gusto! A wonderful cast (Janice Little as 'the Angel', Don Douglas as Zachariah and Liz DeGroote as Elizabeth; Marion Morton as Mary and Bill Labron as Joseph) including many children, brought the final manger scene to life as carols were sung, with Bill Labron singing a moving rendition of ‘O Holy Night’ and ending with everyone joining together in Silent Night.

Thank you to all who took part in creating such a meaningful, joy-filled evening. What a beautiful celebration of Christmas and community. 

Much thanks to Jane Ann Smith for the great photos!