Due to COVID restrictions severely limiting normal seasonal activities, a church has rethought its offering to the Community this year. Whereas use of the Church building has lots of limitations on it, the car park hasn’t, so this Saturday they are putting on a magical ‘Christmas Drive-Thru’ for families to experience in a completely safe way – in their car!
The Rock Church in West Bridgford hit their capacity of within 72 hours of opening up bookings and even decided to open up more spaces to meet demand. Pastor Alistair Kent said “With a maximum of 120 cars registered it’s a clearly indication that we’ve come across a great idea in an environment people feel protected in.” He continued, “For us, we’re still able to create a sense of community at this important time of the Church calendar, albeit in a very different way to normal. COVID has been a dark cloud over us all, but if you look carefully enough, there’s plenty of silver linings to be found and we trust this is going to be one of them. ”
The Drive-Thru has five stations that cars stop at for a couple of minutes a time. Starting at a live nativity that includes animals from the local school farm, cars progress through a fake snowfall to a winter wonderland with lots of light displays. Round the corner and families can wind their windows down and join in with a carol from the small choir of singers. Then a stop at Santa’s workshop to meet the elves before ending at a visit to the big man himself at his grotto where all children receive a present before driving home for the rest of their Christmas.
Even at an affordable £10 per car, The Rock Church is still positioned to raise much needed money to keep the Edwalton Primary School farm running through these hard and challenging times.
More details about the Church and their other Christmas activities, including an open air carol service on Christmas Eve, can be found at www.the-rock.org.uk or for any enquiries, email [email protected]
