Bring the entire family for an afternoon filled with good will and holiday merriment at the 2024 Community
Christmas Celebration on Saturday, December 7 at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, 393 Adams Street,
Rochester.
Doors open at 1:30pm; enter through the Ohio Avenue church entrance. Activities take place in the
Fellowship Hall. Admission is free, but donations of non-perishable food items will be collected for Families
Matter Food Pantry of Center Township.
Community Christmas Celebration is hosted by Beaver Valley Choral Society and Grace Evangelical Lutheran
Church. Additional support is provided by Brighton Hot Dog Shoppes.
The Fellowship Hall will be decorated for this special occasion. Grace Lutheran’s stunning nativity scene is
displayed to remind all of the true, sacred meaning at the heart of Christmas. Then travel the enchanting
Candyland Trail to Santa’s workshop. The trail is filled with artificial Christmas trees, decorated with lights,
and all sorts of candy canes and other sweet treats.
There’s an area where children can sit and create crafts, write letters to Santa and send greeting cards to
deployed military personnel. Kids can even have their faces painted.
Steaming hot chocolate and wassail is provided by Beaver Falls Coffee & Tea. Rochester’s Philly Pretzel Factory
is supplying their famous, delicious pretzels. And Choral Society and Grace Lutheran volunteers who staff the
event are also stocking the mammoth cookie table.
1:30pm — The Celebration begins with an opening prayer from Grace Lutheran Pastor Greory Clagg,
followed by our National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance.
1:45pm – Diane and Larry Brosius present a theatrical reading of the Clement C. Moore poem, “The Night
Before Christmas,” in front of the Fellowship Hall stage.
2:00pm – Santa Claus arrives by fire truck, driven by the Rochester Volunteer Fire Department. Boys and
girls can visit The Jolly Old Elf and Mrs. Claus at Santa’s special chair on the Fellowship Hall stage.
3:30pm – During the final half-hour Grace Lutheran Town Crier Gary Paumer invites everyone to attend
“Carols by Candlelight,” the Choral Society’s Advent concert, that starts at 4pm in the church sanctuary.
St. Barnabas Broadcasting Beaver County Radio will be on hand with a live, two-hour remote broadcast,
starting at 1:30pm.
Those attending the Celebration can take a spin on the radio station Prize Wheel to win
a gift card from a local business. Beaver County Radio will also livestream the “Carols by Candlelight”
concert.
Founded at Beaver College in 1923, the Beaver Valley Choral Society is now in its Second Century of Song.
BVCS is a 501(c)3 Christian-faith based, non-denominational, intergenerational choral and orchestral arts
organization.