GALION, Ohio – St. Paul United Methodist Church invited families – as well as St. Nick himself – to its third annual Candy Cane Lane event at the church.
Families gathered Sunday to take part in a variety of holiday activities, including crafts, cookie decorating, games, face painting, live music, and pictures with Santa, and more.
The event was organized by Laura and Doug Rigdon, co-directors of the education team at St. Paul.
“We feel like it’s growing every year, and hopefully this year is the same,” Laura Rigdon said. “We have a lot of families that come back every year and get their picture taken with Santa and enjoy all the events.”
She added there is no cost to attend the holiday event.
“We want everybody to come and kick off their season, and this is one way we can help the community do that,” she said.
The idea for the annual festivity came from the church pastor Ash Welch when he came to St. Paul from Boardman United Methodist Church.
“In our church, we do various kinds of parties and things for Jesus and Christmas time,” he said. “This is an opportunity to share with the communities around us and invite the other children who are not of this church and our church family as well to come and enjoy a little party for Jesus.”
To share this event with the community is what Christmas “is all about,” Welch added.
Shortly after 4 p.m., Santa made his grand entrance as children and their families gathered outside the church for his arrival.
Without snow, Santa couldn’t bring his sleigh, so he showed up in a bright red Corvette Stingray instead, ringing sleigh bells with his hand.
Among the many people in attendance were Galion High School junior Bri Wallis and her younger cousin 7-year-old Garrett Hagerman.
“I wish I had a Corvette,” Garrett said.
When asked what he was most excited about at Candy Cane Lane, he simply said, “cookies.”
“The first year, I think we had 70 [people] in attendance, and last year we had about 100, so we’re looking forward to seeing lots of kids, said Mandy Kent, who is a member of the church’s education team.
“The idea behind it is to, obviously, start celebrating the Christmas season and to get kids into the church and get them excited about Christmas and hopefully encourage and invite some families to continue coming to the church through the Christmas season.”
Providing music during Candy Cane Lane were Mike Holtzapfel and Larry Weaver.
St. Paul United Methodist Church is located at 746 Cherry St. in Galion.
