Putting up the tree, hanging lights & ornaments, placing a manger scene underneath… these are preparations so many of us make during the Advent/Christmas season. Our churches wanted to share that same dignity and fun with our neighbors!

On the first Saturday of December, about 20 volunteers from 10 different churches donned their favorite holiday gear and set up a Christmas Tree Shop in the Love INC parking lot. They prepared tables full of donated ornaments, lights, and other decor. Others assembled & fluffed artificial trees and placed them around the lot. Friends from our New Hope Ministry life skills classes were invited to come and shop for whatever decorations they needed to make their homes festive for the season.

Our churches also provided Christmas Gift Bags for our New Hope Ministry families (in lieu of the usual party from pre-COVID times). These bags contained all that our neighbors need to shop for gifts for their families.

We shared 36 Christmas Gift Bags with our NHM participants, alum, and a few volunteers. The Gift Bags included:

• $25 Walmart gift cards for each person in the family, primarily provided by Gurnee Community Church, Trinity Community Church, a volunteer from Village Church of Gurnee, and a couple from Joy! Lutheran
• Wrapping paper, tape, bows, scissors and a Christmas book from Bethel Lutheran
• Candy canes with the “Legend of the Candy Cane” attached from volunteers from Immanuel Church
• Tin of cookies from volunteers from Trinity Community Church
• Bags and an ornament craft from Joy! Lutheran
• A chocolate advent calendar from a member of Joy! Lutheran
• 2022 calendar and advent activity booklets from a member of Village Church of Gurnee
• $20 Loved Twice Thrift Boutique gift certificate from Love INC

We pray that these gifts and the time spent together at the Tree Lot will bless our neighbors this Christmas season. As one of our neighbors shared in the video, “the most meaningful part is Jesus”. May we all press that into our hearts!

May God continue to bless and keep you this Christmas season and into 2022.

Check out more pictures from the day in this Facebook Album.