The leadup to Christmas was a little different the past couple of years.
Two years ago, we didn’t have many events happening due to the pandemic restrictions. Few community celebrations. No Christmas assemblies in the schools. The events that did happen only occurred after organizers adjusted the way they do things.
Last year many of the events returned, but not all of them. Some of them were still altered, and there was always uncertainty about if they would happen or not because of COVID-19 restrictions.
We did have a few new events in the community, such as the Estevan Downtown Business Association’s Miracle on Fourth Street.
This year we’re close to the normal we once knew. And the events help make late November and December more enjoyable.
The St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation held the gala for its Festival of Trees. The Dickens Village Festival had everything we’ve come to expect with that fun annual weekend in Carlyle. The Rotary Club of Estevan brought back its annual Christmas Carol Festival on the weekend, the CP Rail Holiday Train will be back this year to spread Christmas cheer and support the Estevan Salvation Army’s food bank, and Woodlawn Regional Park’s Christmas in the Park will return to kick off Woodlawn’s Festival of Lights.
(Thankfully, the Festival of Lights always went ahead, but a couple of years ago, people were strongly urged to remain in their vehicles, rather than wander around to look at the lights).
And school kids will get to showcase their singing and acting talents at their Christmas assemblies.
The return of the events is something I was looking forward to for this Christmas season. Absence makes the heart grow fond. I haven’t been able to get to all of them, but I’ve been happy to make it to as many as possible.
I don’t think I’m the only one who is happy to see the pre-Christmas activities back for this year.
You had to wonder if some of these events would be able to return. I was never in doubt about an event like the Festival of Trees. I knew that once the foundation had the opportunity to bring the gala back, they would. There were too many people in the community who enjoyed the event, and the supper has always been such a successful fundraiser.
But I was concerned about some of the smaller events that might not have had the same level of support in 2019 as they did 20 years earlier. And I thought some of these event organizers would use the pause they had to rethink how they do things.
Many of these events are also fundraisers for the community. The Holiday Train is a great example. Local families missed seeing the train’s brightly-decorated rail cars and hearing the great music. The virtual concert was a good effort by CP to make something happen, but it definitely wasn’t the same.
But the Holiday Train is also a valuable event for the Salvation Army’s food bank, and for food banks across the country and into the U.S. People make food and cash donations when they come to the train stop. CP Rail has traditionally made a donation to the food bank while in Estevan.
The community has done a good job of stepping up and supporting the food bank and the Salvation Army’s community efforts as a whole over the past couple of years, but the ministry has missed having this fun afternoon.
People are also more willing to be out now than they were a year ago. Last year a lot of people were leery. Saskatchewan had just gone through its toughest wave of the pandemic, and there was plenty of hesitancy and uncertainty after the virus had mutated into the Omicron variant.
This year we know more about Omicron than we did at this time a year ago, we don’t have to worry about masking mandates and proof of vaccination requirements, and we’re just more eager to do things. There are still people who are hesitant about COVID, but not as many as there were in the past two years.
Events have always made Christmas a little more fun. They instill that Christmas spirit into us. It’s fun to enjoy activities, look at the Christmas lights and listen to the Christmas music and be among those who have a similar level of enjoyment.
After all, this season only comes once a year. And for many, it’s too long of a wait until we get to enjoy Christmas festivities again.
