Chehalis Christmas Parade

December 6, 2008

by Emily Buss

The youth group of the Apostolic Faith Church in Chehalis, Washington, met the Saturday after Thanksgiving to work on preparing a float for the upcoming Christmas parade in downtown Chehalis. The theme of the parade was “Candy Cane Lane,” and the young people decorated the perimeter of the trailer with wooden candy canes painted white and wrapped with red ribbon. Hung between each candy cane were fragrant cedar boughs wrapped with clear Christmas lights. The young people decided to use this opportunity to promote the real reason for the Christmas season, and they used bales of hay as seating for various live Nativity characters: Mary and Joseph (Nick and Lois Macomber); an angel (Josie Neff); three Wise Men (Derek and Seth Macomber, Kysar Combs); shepherds (Anthony and Ricky Mixer, Alisha Neff); and a lamb (Asher Neff). Also included was a manger of hay with the baby Jesus portrayed by a doll. Gary Riler coordinated a group of brass musicians from the Chehalis church orchestra, including Reg Macomber, Josh DeBusk, Dan Macomber, and Ryan Trotter to serenade the parade observers with traditional Christmas carols from the bed of the pickup truck which pulled the decorated trailer.

On Saturday, December 6, the weather was beautiful for the parade, with not a drop of rain in sight. This led to an enormous turnout of parade goers – many more than were anticipated! During the parade, several Sunday school students walked alongside the float, passing out candy canes and invitations to the Sunday school Christmas program, which was to be presented the following evening. The invitations were crafted as a Christmas card which read, “Greetings from the Heart”—it was not a coincidence that this was also the title of this year’s Sunday school program. Inside the card was a short story about the connection between a candy cane and the life of Christ. Because of the large turnout of spectators, all 300 of the program invitations were handed out well before the parade route was completed, and the bags full of candy canes were empty!

What an amazing opportunity this was to invite people to Sunday school and church!

In addition to the fun time the young people had preparing the float and the excitement of the Sunday school students who participated in the parade, the highlight of this experience came when the Chehalis Apostolic Faith Church float was presented with the second-place trophy in the youth category. Participating in the parade was an exciting way for the Chehalis church to portray the true meaning of Christmas, and a great opportunity to reach out to the local community. With the experience that was gleaned from partaking in this year’s parade, the Chehalis youth group is already looking forward to next year and the opportunity to compete for the first-place trophy!