2008 Festival of Lights

Christmas would hardly be Christmas around here without the annual Festival of Lights brought to our community each year by Calvary Church. Mr. Jones is a member of the choir and has performed in it for twenty years in a row! This year was a bit lighter on the music and heavy on the drama because this year Festival of Lights was "A Christmas Carol", written by none other than Charles Dickens, adapted as a play by Troy Lazarus.Our children have many memories of participation in the drama aspects of Festival, and at some point or other, all performed in it as either shepherds, or they were all dressed up in fashions of old for crowd scenes ... and wasn't Sabrina part of the Wise Men's entourage one year, complete with a jewel in the middle of her forehead?!

Yesterday I attended the afternoon performance and tried to get some good pictures; however, not many of them turned out ... something about shooting in the dark and all of those lights interfering with my focus, etc. However, I'll show you what I can! The Sunday matinee performance was totally sold out and I was without a ticket ... so I stood at the very back of the balcony and leaned against the railing, out of the way of everyone, and had a great view of the whole show!

The staging was really well done with a storefront and city street scene from Olde London, to Scrooge and Marley's place of business, Scrooge's bedroom ... and the storefront even opened up wide to allow for a dance floor and other interesting settings. There was lots of fog blown about on stage when the ghosts of Marley and the other spirits appeared, and there was even simulated snow falling, oh so gently ...

Here is the best shot I got of the orchestra warming up and playing their numbers during the pre-show.

And while the orchestra was playing, there was a live nativity on stage complete with the necessary shepherd boys, kings, stable, Mary, Joseph, and of course baby Jesus.

In the program literature this year, I read some interesting information about Charles Dickens that I did not know! He was a Christian and deliberately wrote elements of the gospel into his book. I grew up watching Hollywood's version of "A Christmas Carol" almost every Christmas Eve. My very favorite is the 1938 one with Gene Lockhart playing the part of Bob Cratchit. But even choosing the name "Cratchit" was intentional, as the word "cratch" is the old English word for "creche", the manger of baby Jesus!

The cast did a wonderful job of telling the story of Ebeneezer Scrooge, that very selfish and greedy man who experiences remorse, true repentance, and then miraculous forgiveness ... a journey true of all believers who have come to faith in Christ ~ and isn't that the real meaning of Christmas afterall?

My Mr. Jones dresses up rather nicely, don't you think?

Our grandson, Nathan, was able to attend at least one of the performances and was especially delighted that BOTH of his grandpas were taking part! Not only does Grandpa Jones sing in the choir, but his Grandpa McNeil plays the trumpet in the orchestra! I asked Nathan this morning if he saw Scrooge, and he responded with a wide smile and said, "Yes I did. I did see Scrooge. And I saw the shepherds. And the kings. And baby Jesus."