E-Free offers drive-in Nativity
Every year, the Evangelical Free Church of Lethbridge presents its annual Christmas Show, and this year with COVID-19 restrictions, they have found a way to still share the historic story of Christmas, running every evening through Christmas Eve.
Typically held in their large facility, the church decided to move its live nativity production to a drive-in theatre show, held in their parking lot and broadcasted through a short-range FM radio transmission.
“We are doing what we call Christmas in Lethbridge — Drive-in edition,” says Ken Dosso, Pastor of Worship Arts at Evangelical Free Church of Lethbridge. “Every year we do a big Christmas show of some sort, this year with all of the COVID restrictions, we’ve said that we can’t go indoors and do the big crowds that we used to, so we are doing a Nativity scene outdoors live for people in their vehicles.”
Working through all of the government restrictions, the Evangelical Free Church’s production was shrunk to a smaller cast, playing a variety of roles, along with following social distancing guidelines by having viewers stay in their vehicles.
“We went over the Alberta Health Services restrictions a bunch of times for everything, and to the best of our knowledge, we are in complete compliance for what they have asked us to do and we are still able to show a real story of hope during this time,” says Dosso. “We are really excited to present this show. We have really worked hard to produce three shows an hour for three nights. We’ve tried to have enough capacity so that anyone from the community who wants to come can come. Anyone who wants to come, from the church or not, is more than welcome because there isn’t too much to do this Christmas this year and we think this is a pretty good choice.”
The Christmas in Lethbridge — Drive-in edition will be running nightly from 5:30 — 8:30 p.m. in 15-minute intervals. People are encouraged to arrive at least 10 minutes ahead of their scheduled time, or drop in, to enjoy the pre-show entertainment, as well as to give time for proper organization of vehicles.
“If people come in, they can reserve ahead of time online through christmasinlethbridge.ca, or go to our website, as well as just dropping in, we ask that everyone comes 10 minutes early so we can sort the vehicles according to height so that everyone can enjoy the show,” says Dosso. “When you first come, people will be sorted and there will be a pre-show program that is being projected onto our gym wall, and then when it is time for the show, they will be moved to the viewing area where we have a 15-minute presentation of what we think is the historic story of Christmas put on by live actors on a stage built in our parking lot.”
For more information, visit christmasinlethbridge.ca.