SAEA hosting Christmas Around the World
For the second year, Lethbridge is bringing cultures from across the world to its doorstep with their Christmas Around the World event.
On Friday from 4-8 p.m., the Southern Alberta Ethnic Association (SAEA) will be hosting an evening that brings together cultures by allowing the community to see how Christmases are celebrated across the world.
With a night of multiculturalism and entertainment, organizers are excited to be bringing back this free event for city residents to enjoy.
"It’s free, super family-friendly and through this event, we get to share a multicultural experience with the community,” says Tara Gillanders, SAEA program director. “The evening shows everyone that we are a diverse community and that there’s so much to learn about each other’s cultures, and we’re incredibly thrilled to be doing it again this year.”
The Christmas Around the World event, which began in 2016, was brought to life by SAEA members who wanted to showcase the region’s multiculturalism and diversity around Christmas time as a way of bringing everyone together and celebrating the differences the area has to offer.
With a tremendous turnout by the public at their first event, the SAEA administrators are ecstatic to be hosting the event once again.
With a slew of different volunteers giving their time to attend and share their culture, traditions and forms of entertainment to the rest of the community, Gillanders says there’s no shortage of worldly representation set to appear at this year’s event.
“We have a ton of different people involved this year from Japan, Ukraine, Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia, to Hungary, Italy and the Netherlands. We have a real cross section of different multicultural groups that live here and want to share their cultures with others at this year’s event.”
Whether it’s through having their own tables and offering tasty treats and slices of their cultures to audiences or by providing live entertainment with their countries’ unique twists, over 50 people are volunteering at this year’s event to bring the world to Lethbridge this Christmas.
However, it’s not only cultures participants can get a taste of during the evening, but also a pool of activities and fun for all ages to enjoy and the best part — it’s free to attend.
“The main idea of the event is also to have some really fun arts and crafts going on throughout the evening,” says Gillanders. “Santa will make an appearance and we’ll have cookie decorations and some really exciting entertainment throughout the evening as well such as dancers from different areas across the world.”
As the festive season gets into full swing, the night of crafts, culture and entertainment is ready to offer a night of free fun for all to get the community in the Christmas spirit and with over 400 people coming out last year to experience the evening, organizers are hoping for an even better event this year.
“Last year was incredibly cold, so we are hoping it will be a little warmer this year,” says Gillanders with a laugh. “But, we were thrilled last year about how many people came out. It was quite busy and a really great turnout for us, so we’re really excited to be doing it again this year.”
The Christmas Around the World event will be held this year on Friday from 4-8 p.m. at the Southern Alberta Ethnic Association.