It was tree-mendous!
Parishioners at Our Lady of Grace Church in Gravesend delighted the pubic with a tree-lighting extravaganza on Dec. 5, when more than 500 locals congregated to witness the illumination of no less than 64 trees. Organizers devised the spectacle to engender renewed interest in the church — and a little holiday cheer, they said.
“We really wanted to try and get people into the Christmas spirit and back into the church, which is the most important part,” said Jaime McFarland, a church parishioner and member of the Our Lady of Grace fund-raising committee.
The church amped up its Christmas-tree-lighting compared to Christmases past, when the event included little pomp and almost no hullabaloo, according to McFarland.
“There was no fanfare,” she said. “It was very basic.”
Previously, Our Lady of Grace offered around 30 small pines that parishioners sponsored and lit in memory of family members who have passed away.
But this year, the church more than doubled the amount of trees that it bedazzled in radiant luminescence, according to Mike Demartino, vice president of the Our Lady of Grace church and academy fund-raising committee.
The church also lit a more-than-30-foot pine beside the rectory that parishioners had not illuminated in a quarter-century, according to McFarland.
Santa Claus, who arrived in spectacular style aboard a fire truck, officiated the event and tree-lighting countdown.
But it was Kings County kids and the magic of imagination that ultimately set the trees ablaze with Christmas lights, according to Geraci.
Before the countdown, Santa handed each kid in attendance a gift bag full of goodies and — more importantly — a magic wand with which to anoint the trees with electric, yuletide luster, she said.
“They counted down from 10 and, with their wands, they were supposed to make the lights light up with magic,” Geraci said.
A church children’s choir’s blessed rhapsody accompanied the lighting — the tonal tykes belted out classic noels such as “Jingle Bells,” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” and “Joy to the World,” according to Demartino.
Kids and parents alike gave Our Lady of Grace’s new tree-lighting celebration stellar reviews, and the church plans on making the event an yuletide tradition, Demartino said.
“All positive input,” he said. “They said next year they want to make it bigger and better. Everybody wants to do it again.”
