Silver Creek Family Church Tree Lighting
by Luke Putvin | Lynnwood Times
As the holiday season draws near, people are starting to celebrate. Celebrations may come in many different forms, but one local celebration was at the Silver Creek Family Church in Lynnwood. There, the church put on a tree lighting with Santa. There was live music, an abundance of food trucks, hot chocolate and small firepits with areas to sit around and relax.
Silver Creek Family Church has been doing a tree lighting in Lynnwood for over five years now. Elizabeth Volz, Executive Director of Ministries at the church, has been a part of it every year. When asked what need she saw in the community for an event like this, she cited trying to fill a void in the community when the city stopped doing its tree lighting at Wilcox Park.
“We’ve always been involved with the Edmonds tree lighting; my kids were in the band and part of that. It was just such a cool community-building opportunity for people to come out of their homes during the winter and connect. And we thought, ‘Gosh, we feel like that’s kind of missing in the Lynnwood Community.’ We have a great big piece of property, and we thought why not open it up and invite the city, police department, fire department and the whole community.”
Volz’s favorite part of the event is getting to see so many people. “We get to see city councilmembers, the police department, the fire department, city officials and neighbors we’ve never met. It’s all about the community that is created here.”
She also talked about other events the church puts on throughout the year including a big egg hunt, their water slide event this past summer and even a bull-riding competition.
“We love being out and getting to know our neighbors. We want to be, year-round, a place that people know. We’re not looking for anything in return, we just want to open our doors and have the opportunity to connect with our community.”
One of the many attendees was Jessica Stevenson, a Lynnwood resident. She learned about the event on Facebook and decided to come out with her kids and have some Christmas fun.
“We were excited about the slide, but that was a little scary,” Stevenson said. “So now we’re having some hot cocoa, and we’re going to see Santa… Both my husband and I work retail, so squeezing things in is pretty tough. Pretty much anything like this that is last minute is nice for us. We also like to go look at Christmas lights on houses nearby.”
For Stevenson, Christmas is all about family and being together, especially when schedules can be so hectic normally. “It’s a time we get to get together. Our family is all off on the same day, which is pretty miraculous. So it’s family around the dinner table, and it’s watching the kids have a magical Christmas as well as the spirit of Santa and the spirit of Jesus.”For more information about Silver Creek Family Church and its upcoming events, visit the website at www.silvercreekfamily.org
