Christmas In The City is an annual Production staged at He’s Alive Church each Christmas Season. This would be our seventh year of CITC. That is hard to believe, even as I write it. For many, who were part of The Carolina Christmas Spectacular, the show CITC grew out of, this would be 20 years of doing this type of Production. The purpose of Christmas In The City is to encourage the believer and to reach the lost and broken with the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ. We use the wonder of the Christmas Season as a pivotal time of year in which to stage CITC. The reason for that is simply because it seems to be a time of year when most are searching for and needing hope. It’s a time of year when despair, need, and brokenness are most intensely magnified. It’s a time when many find themselves longing for the time-tested truths that have always tugged at their hearts from deep within. It’s a time when many need to be reminded of what really matters most.
The Gospel is readily available and equally powerful all throughout the year, but not surprisingly, every year, December rolls around and brings with it unique and extraordinary opportunities to embolden weary hearts and lift life above the ordinary. This makes the typically routine moments of life ripe for the wonder of the greatest story ever told, the Gospel. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve heard it, how many ways you’ve heard it, if you’ve ever come face to face with its impact, it makes you want to tell it again and again and again. You never grow tired of it.
The burning question of the moment that has lit up the CITC Facebook page and many other social media outlets, and is the question many have been asking me in conversation, “In this, the year of the pandemic shutdown, will there be a Christmas In The City Production?”
The year 2020 has brought many harrowing situations into our lives. It has made every decision so much more difficult, along with the ramifications of uncertainty for every daring step forward. Those factors are only multiplied many times over when you are making decisions concerning an event of this magnitude. Typically, we are already well into the production of CITC. But the labor and toil over decisions like this are the reason we have said nothing about it until now. The simple answer to the question everyone is asking is, YES, we are going to try and stage a Christmas In The City Production this year! But it won’t look the same as in years past due to many of the precautions and protocols we are taking. Let me lay out some of the details for this year as simply as I can.
The dates for this year’s Christmas In The City will be December 4-6 & December 11-13. There will be no Dinner Theater format this year. Chairs will be socially spaced for safety. This means we will only be selling around 100 tickets for each show, as opposed to 400 in years past. Masks will be required as you enter, exit, and move about the building. They may be removed at your seat and while watching the Production. You will be ushered to your seat and you will be ushered out as you exit. There will be sanitizing stations throughout the building as well.
In order to reach more people, on the Saturday and Sunday nights of the show, we will be doing two shows. That’s right, two shows. Not two different shows, the same show twice, for two different audiences. The Friday nights will just be one show. The way this is possible is because this year’s show will be condensed and shorter with no intermission. But the added element to this year’s CITC is that it also combines outdoor events with the indoor show, weather permitting of course.
Your ticket will allow you to participate in both the outside and inside elements of the Production. Your ticket will be marked with the indoor show time of your selection. You will enter the building only at your show time. However, prior to and after your indoor show experience, you may experience all the outdoor activities associated with the Production as well. Come early, stay late, do both!
On the inside, you’ll experience the Production with the same quality and value that you’ve always experienced it. It will just be shorter, with less people, socially spaced in the room. It will definitely have a more intimate feel for those who like that ambience. On the outside, you will also experience additional festive and inspirational music and entertainment, Santa and other Christmas characters, food, hot chocolate, coffee and cider, and many other Christmas activities and fun. We are still working out all the details with regard to all of the outdoor festivities. But it has the hope and expectation of a night filled with Christmas Spirit and cheer for all! It will be like a gigantic Christmas buffet for all! And yes, no masks required outside. In the event of inclement weather, the outdoor activities will be cancelled, but the indoor Production will still continue.
With all of the uncertainty of these times, we recognize there are no certainties. But we feel that in fulfilling our mission of bringing life to dead places, we at least have to try to stage this Production, even though differently this year. When it’s all said and done, we will look back on it and say, “That was totally worth the effort.” Some may even say, “I actually like this format better.” The journey will be exciting and new, and either way, let's bring on the wonder!