48: Here at HOPE: It's Time for a Tree Lighting!

Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast, where we have conversations about faith and hope.

Hope is one church made of people living out their faith through two expressions in person and online.

We believe a hybrid faith experience can lead to a growing influence in our community and our world for the sake of others.

Welcome to Hope Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of the Meet Hope podcast.

My name is Ashley Black and I'm excited to be here with you today.

We are heading into the month of November, which is one of my favorite months.

With me today, I have Casey Cornforth and Rick Court, who are both on staff here at Hope.

We're going to talk a little bit about one of our favorite things that happens in November.

Before that I thought we could just talk about, maybe the main event of November is Thanksgiving.

Are you guys looking forward to Thanksgiving?

Do you like Thanksgiving?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm always looking forward to Thanksgiving.

Yeah, it's one of my favorite holidays.

Yep for all those reasons.

Yeah, they'll be with family.

I love the limited agenda that comes with Thanksgiving.

Say yes, yeah, I know, I think Casey and you and I have talked before about like there are no gifts with Thanksgiving.

So you don't have to like do that, as, like a parent, the pressure is off, especially for a mom, you know you might just have to bake a little extra?

Do either of you have something that your family does specifically for Thanksgiving or anything like?

We recently took over hosting at our house which is just lovely.

Oh, wow, okay, the big deal.

Do you like it?

Yeah, but we just host like ourselves and maybe some of my family members in and out.

But it's nice, that's lovely.

Yeah, low pressure low key.

Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, so we go to Kelly's parents every year and you know they're getting older but they enjoy doing it.

So we've been taking on more responsibility of bringing things to their house, got it.

So taking over more of the cooking, so that you know Kelly's mom will do the turkey and then all the other stuff we all do and bring it with us.

That's kind of fun, yeah.

And our kids are all getting older.

So now it's you know it's fun to be all be together, yeah.

That's awesome.

And then we have a lot of people that are like, oh Joe, because he fires up the smoker and puts the turkey on the smoke.

Yeah, chris, kind of become our thing.

I love Thanksgiving.

It's always been one of my favorite holidays, but it's recently become even more of a favorite holiday for me, because the day after Thanksgiving which for a lot of people is Black Friday they go shopping we my last name is Black, so we started doing.

We do Black Family Friday.

And so we just just our media family, like we're with extended family on Thanksgiving.

We just do something and it changes every year, but we've made it like our own family holiday.

So I'm a nerd about that.

But then after Black Friday is something that we're we all look forward to here at Hope as part of the Hope community, and that is that we do a tree lighting every year.

And so that's what we're going to talk about today.

We're going to talk about how how that happens, how it comes together, why we do it, and so this year it is on November 25th, which is a Saturday.

Gingerbread, which is part of tree lighting, starts at 6pm, and then the tree lighting event out in our parking lot starts at 6.30pm, and so and we'll be right back when we've done Kendrick's kind of emergency penalty group face disk.

Hey, nelda, rick and Casey, I know you both know why I asked you to do this with me, but our listeners may not know.

So could you tell us a little bit about why you both might be here, why you're both so involved in tree lighting?

Yes, so it was figured out a few years ago that we needed a central point person to oversee because it's a large event, and so Dave and I this year have taken on that responsibility of leading the whole event, all the different segments that are connected to it, all the different teams that lead that.

And Casey is one of those larger pieces in that you're leading the gingerbread event with your team.

Yes, which is my favorite, most favorite event of the year here at Hope.

It's just a big event.

It's kind of become a tradition for families.

You purchase your gingerbread house or houses depending on what your, how many your family want to purchase and you come in and we have the table set up with the candy and they're glued together ready to go.

It's pretty fun.

Yeah, and so how long have you both been involved with this event?

So, rick, you mentioned you like just kind of became more of a point person, but yeah it's.

You know, we're not sure how long, I'm not sure how long we've been doing it.

Yeah, we've always been doing it since I've been here.

Yeah.

For more than a decade and it started as a smaller event and it's grown and we added the gingerbread piece.

But yeah, I've had different roles.

I was a gingerbread host one year, where I just help people find seats, and then I've been gingerbread cleanup other years and now now.

I'm no longer.

You've moved outside, I moved outside, yeah, yeah.

I liked it because you loved me.

He's very happy to have you, yeah.

Gingerbread inside was nice, because there were some days when it was rainy and I was inside and some days when it was really cold and I was inside.

But so now I'm, I'm outside.

I feel like since you've gone outside, they've gotten warmer.

I don't know.

Let's let's hope that's the case this year.

This is my fifth gingerbread event, so that gives a little bit of context to how long it's been going on, I think, and it's my fourth, fourth year leading it Okay.

So you did it one year and they were like yeah, I started as a volunteer and you know, that's, that's how we get pulled in here.

We volunteer and then you do something really well and then they ask you to do it again.

Yeah but it's cool because I know for you, like you said, you love it so much and I always love getting to see someone who, when they step in as a volunteer and they find that thing that they really love, and then it becomes their like, their passion, they lead others to it.

Yeah, I would do gingerbread even if I wasn't on staff.

I would do it, you know, as a volunteer, as long as I could.

It's really fun.

So what is the main goal when we do this event?

Is there anything we're trying to accomplish by hosting this?

My first goal is always to connect the families that are already here, but also connect families that are new or that would possibly consider hope, and this is a great event to invite people to, to welcome.

You know, if you have a friend that doesn't have a church home or maybe just doesn't go to church often, but this is a great way to invite them in, to have something for them to do.

Yeah, what you know?

What kid doesn't love putting glue and candy together?

Exactly.

You know, you get a tube of icing and candy and you get to go to go to town decorating.

Yeah, and overall it's more than a.

It's more than just a kickoff event for the Christmas season.

It's it's an opportunity for us to invite people to join our community, you know, to invite neighbors and my family, and yeah, and it is fun and that's why I think the invite is so easy, because it's a fun, it's fun Like and it's I love.

You know it's outside there's lots of lights happening because we have live music and there's, you know, santa comes on the firetruck and there's other things going on.

And then when the tree is lit like if you drive by.

It looks like this fun thing that anyone can just show up to.

Yeah.

Even if you don't want to do like the gingerbread portion of it, you could come just for the tree lighting Right, and there's kids, crafts and hot cocoa and candy canes and you know people and community, and so yeah, there's something for every age.

I know that often I even see this is the event where I see a lot of like previous middle school or high school students who have gone off to college and they come home for the holiday and they still want to come by this community event yeah, that's really cool.

So so it happens this month in November.

But because it's such a big event, I'm wondering when do you guys start planning for this?

A?

while before I plan to.

I'm guessing it's probably.

That means different things to each of you, so please eat, yes, a while.

Mean to you for my portion, but specifically for the gingerbread event.

We start like September or October of the year prior to this event.

So I've been planning now for over a year and really that comes down to the needing to purchase the gingerbread houses and having to find a good sale.

So if anyone out there ever finds a gingerbread house on a good deal or bargain, please send it my way or purchase it and I will reimburse you.

So yeah, I said I when we were planning this.

I mentioned to Casey I.

I've been on many text threads where Casey said oh, we can only buy five each, so will you buy five and I'll get them to you.

Even our office staff have gone to like Target or Walmart and purchased as many as can fit in the back of their car loaded up.

You know they're determined you give them a project like that there.

Yeah, yeah what about you, rick?

Yes, yeah, we start almost a year in advance.

I think.

We start with the debrief of the year before, where we, you know, critique it pretty hard and look at what went well, what didn't go well, suggest improvements, look for ideas for the future, and then we begin planning in earnest about six months beforehand.

I think we have our first tree lighting meeting in June where we look at what we plan to do either differently or in addition to then.

We have initial meetings with staff throughout and we find key volunteers, key leaders and, yeah, it, as it, as it gets closer, the meetings ramp up, the the weekly updates start to happen.

So, yeah, so it's a, it's a, it's a big event that requires has a lot of moving pieces, requires a lot of organization and planning.

Yeah, yeah, and then you said there's lots of moving pieces.

So obviously we've mentioned gingerbread and and all that happens with that, with tree lighting.

What are all the different?

What are all the pieces?

So, and I guess maybe the best way to ask this is if this is my first time and I'm kind of walking, I parked my car and I'm walking into the event what can I expect?

What could I be looking for?

well, if you're going to gingerbread, you show up in the lobby of the of the of Hope Church in the building and there you there's a registration for gingerbread, which is held in the activity space right yes, we usually have a lot of a whole line going down the hallway leading to the activity space, which is kind of fun.

It like builds that excitement.

Families show up a few minutes before they get checked in.

They get their icing tubes when they check in and they all line up and the kids are ready.

We open the doors, they run in, it's, it's cool.

And then you, when you soon as you're done, you have a half hour to complete, but whenever you're finished you just go right outside and join.

I think there's a welcome tent right for the outside portion yes, from 6 to 6 30 is gingerbread building and then from 6 30 is when the the music begins a few minutes before that, but we have live music and you'll follow the music out to the parking lot and you'll see a welcome tent where you probably get some nice gifts and then there's live music from our band.

There's, there's snacks, there's hot chocolate, there's Santa, there's crafts for the kids, right, yes?

there's a craft.

After gingerbread craft there's more, there's more.

Yep, the parents are loaded with stuff to take home yes, that's why it takes so many people to to pull this off.

Lots of volunteers for both gingerbread and the tree-lating right, and it just requires those kind of things.

Yeah, yes we both both need lots of lots and lots of volunteers to make this happen.

So I'm sure some people that are listening probably have volunteered before, but maybe some people are interested in volunteering for the first time this year and you're still looking for volunteers, right?

We're still early into November.

Yeah, I started recruiting back in September.

You know, late September, early October.

Essentially I try to recruit three teams.

One is a team that comes before the event and we glue the houses together for the gingerbread event and then a team for the night of the gingerbread event and then a team who will be outside doing the crafts and candy canes and you know activities that we have for kids out there as a parent, I have to tell you that the fact of the gingerbread house comes pre-assembled is such a huge selling point because that is my least favorite part of putting up to repairs as requested.

If your roof, if your roof falls off, we have a squad that will come and hot glue it back together.

So, besides, so, besides volunteers, which we'll talk more about in a little bit too, but I'm what else?

What else does it take to make this happen?

well, we need.

We need people to make invites because, yeah, again, the the desire is not to create an event that our church people can attend.

Yes, we want them to attend, but we also want those who may not be a part of our church community to receive an invite to join us.

And so lots of invites need to be made.

And then it takes money.

You know there's a we budget for the expenses for this and the church is generous with that.

But there's also times where people make other generous donations, like icing.

Yes, we have a local bakery who will donate the tubes of icing for us.

They have in the past and we have.

We do a collection here where you'll see if you're in.

If you come into the building.

We'll have boxes set up where you can donate unused candy Candy, yeah, you know.

If you have candy that's not opened usually peanut free please we will take the extra candy off your hands and we'll use it towards the gingerbread event.

Which I know a lot of people if they've left over Halloween candy still or that kind of stuff.

That they can't do I think it's a great idea.

It comes right off a great holiday.

It does.

In fact, I mean, yeah, and we do have.

You know, we'll have families that donate candy canes that we can use, which is awesome too.

And so, and you guys both, both have kind of talked a little bit about this but how many people do you do we see at this event?

We see, like we see, hundreds of people right, I guess yeah Like.

Kasey, you mentioned how many, how many gingerbread houses?

We.

It depends on the year, but we will cap it anywhere between like 60 to 80 actual houses.

But what that means is attached to that house could be anywhere from two to like six or seven people, because not only do you have the child who's decorating the house, you have the parents, the grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, so it can really build.

So we get.

We fill up fast.

Yeah, and tree lighting parking lot is just filled with people, hundreds.

It's one of those.

It's a challenging event to count, so we don't.

We don't take an official attendance, but we do.

We do measure it and so we count by hundreds.

In a sense, we say, well, there was several hundred people, but we know that the parking lot is full, we know that the craft booths are full, the snack booths are full, and we know there's always a line for Santa, because he's he's the most popular on that evening Always.

Yeah.

So do you each have a part of this event that is your, your favorite, and I know you've been doing it a lot of years and so maybe that's changed over the years.

But what would you say right now is your favorite part of this event?

My favorite part is seeing the spirit of Christmas in action, through the invites, through the connection, um it, just, it just.

There's an excitement and anticipation that's in the air, um, the whole event, when you kind of like Rick had said earlier, you sometimes don't realize it until after the afterwards, when you're involved in it, but you just look back and you go, wow, that was really magical.

You know that was, it was a great night.

Yeah, I find it's such a busy time that I almost don't take time to appreciate it.

But then I find that afterward it's always the people who come up and share stories.

Either the first thing I came to was the tree lighting or gingerbread event, or the first time I volunteered was at that event.

Or when someone says I invited my friends to come and they came For me, that's the win.

I find that to be my favorite part.

Yeah, that's always awesome.

I always love hearing how someone the first place that they got connected was at this event, because it's just so much fun.

It just creates so much joy and Christmas spirit.

We've seen that at the family services on Christmas, that's after the event, we usually see at least one or two families that have been connected through from this event.

So that's always fun.

Yeah, and Casey, you just mentioned with our family services.

So anybody that's looking towards Christmas in general, this year we have a Christmas webpage on our Meet Hope page, meethopeorg slash Christmas, and people can go there to see kind of everything that's coming up this holiday season.

But they can also go there if they want to get involved with this event.

So I know, casey gingerbread, you have to pre-register, right?

Because it's basically kind of limited.

Yeah, the gingerbread event is specific in that sense that you do have to pre-register.

You have to sign up for a gingerbread house.

You don't have to list how many you're coming, it's just how many houses you're purchasing, and then the tree lighting event is open for all.

But if someone wants to volunteer, they can also go to that page meethopeorg slash Christmas and there's a volunteer sign up there.

Yes, so if people are still looking to get involved and you guys need all kinds of volunteers, right?

We do All ages.

We're a lot of fun to work with.

Always looking for volunteers.

All different ways to volunteer and different times.

Yes so there's different time commitments for, and so there's lots of ways to be involved.

Yeah, there's ways to be involved and help out prior to the event so you can still come to the event and enjoy it with your family.

So that's nice.

Yes.

So what's so great about this event is it's easy to come to if you're new and it's easy to invite friends to if you're looking for a way to invite a friend and it's easy to volunteer at.

There's tons of options.

So all around, it's just this really fun, fun night.

And so you know we're about where we need to start wrapping up.

But before we do that, is there anything else you guys want to share about the tree lighting event?

Yeah, you know, I would just say that it is what I love about it, and what I love about what we're doing, even with this podcast, is that we're communicating that this event is accessible and it's such a good way to serve for the first time if you're already connected here or if you want to get better connected and it is a great way to invite somebody.

I mean, we know that at holiday season, that's when people are more, most interested and most willing to receive an invitation to come to church and to be able to invite them to an event that isn't very churchy but they still would experience the Hope community.

I just think it's a great way for us to serve our community to serve the Voorhees community?

Yeah, no, I love that.

That's awesome.

Well, thank you both for being here and for sharing with everyone a little bit about how the Christmas magic happens at the tree lighting a little behind the scenes, and so, as we've mentioned, if you would like to come, if you'd like to volunteer, all of that can be found at meethopeorg slash Christmas.

We will put all of those links and things in our show notes if you're looking for them.

We really hope that you come, and not only come, but invite a friend.

Yes.

Even if you're volunteering, you can still invite a friend to come meet you there while you're volunteering.

Right?

Yeah, definitely, and yeah, so we hope to see you at the tree lighting on November 25th, and until next time, we hope that you have a great day.

Thanks for being a part of the Hope community as we continue our conversations about faith and hope.

If you don't already, please join us for worship on Sundays or on demand.

You can learn more at meethopeorg or find us on socials at Meet Hope Church.