Email This StoryHoliday festivities to deliver art, music, food to Fifth street
Dec. 4, 2008
 Sarah Morris/Lariat staffHouston sophomore Will Touchstone wraps Christmas lights around a tree on a ladder in front of Old Main for KOT's 43rd annual Christmas Tree Lighting at Christmas on Fifth Street. The lighting will take place tonight at 7:15 p.m. |
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Christmas on Fifth Street and Kappa Omega Tau's 43rd annual Christmas Tree Lighting will allow Baylor students, faculty and their families to celebrate the holiday season early with free concerts, an arts and crafts marketplace and fun for all.
Festivities begin tonight at 6 p.m. with free family activities, both inside and outside the Bill Daniel Student Center.
Inside, people can take pictures with Santa Claus and enjoy free hot chocolate, coffee and cider. Outside the student center, a live nativity, pony rides, petting zoo and free carriage rides will be available for enjoyment.
Marketplace vendors, such as Annie's Custom Jewelry, Heart Creek Designs and Mission Waco "Fair Trade Market and World Crafts," will be selling items in the student center Den.
This year, the Kappa Pickers will open for the Robbie Seay Band, Waking Caleb and Steven Curtis Chapman in Burleson Quadrangle.
The fraternity chose the bands because of their Christian aspect, Longview junior Conrad Steele said.
"We wanted to hone the focus into a more Christmas-y feeling," he said. "We wanted to focus more on the Christmas story, so we decided to go with Christian artists."
This year, the proceeds from KOT's T-shirt and fleece sells will benefit Shaohannah's Hope, a non-profit organization founded by Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth.
"When my dad (Steven Curtis Chapman) found out the night was a benefit for the Shaohannah's Hope, he was excited to do it," said Emily Chapman Richards, Baylor alumna and Shaohannah's Hope's international program manager. "Shaohannah's Hope is something he believes in, and it is so important for Christians to care for orphans, like James 1:27 calls us to do."
According to the Shaohannah's Hope Web site, part of its mission is to help Christian families reduce the financial barriers to adoption. Financial grants are awarded to qualified families already in the process of adopting.
"Each grant that (Shaohannah's Hope) gives is about $3000," said Waco junior Bo Weathersbee. "We are estimating to give $20,000 to that charity, which will fund almost seven grants."
The reading of the Christmas story and lighting of the 32-foot-tall tree will be at 7:15 p.m.
"I hope people will slow down and listen to the Christmas story and not have it be mundane," Steele said. "Christmas is about love and God giving his son out of love, and us turning that around and showing the same love."
The Baylor Religious Hour Choir will also present Selah, a Christian group made up of Amy Perry, Allan Hall and Todd Smith.
Baylor is Selah's first stop on their Christmas tour.
If people have never been to Christmas on 5th Street, Selah will add to the overall experience, said Kennedale senior Lindsay Power.
BRH will open for Selah with a few Christmas songs and songs from the album they recorded in November, Power said.
"I hope it will give everyone a chance to fellowship and worship together and focus on what Christmas is about," she said. "I am blessed to be a part of that."
Steele said his favorite part of Christmas on 5th Street is the community.
"It's time to slow down and spend time in the Baylor community," he said. "We need to focus on why we're here and what the Christmas season is all about."
The night's intention is to have an event that is focused on Baylor students and faculty, Weathersbee said.
"The purpose is to have a sense of fellowship and a way to celebrate the birth of Jesus," he said. "So we use the concert and the tree lighting as a way to do that."
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