One of the churches in our area hosts the cutest little Christmas event called The Alpine Village. It is free and open to the public but you have to make reservations for your family several weeks in advance due to its popularity. I made ours as soon as the church announced they were opening up the reservation times and we headed over to The Village one Sunday after church. When you walk in, you register your child and they then get a "necklace" with a card that lists all the events available. The events will be checked off by the volunteer staff as the child rotates through that station. The child also gets a gift bag to hold all the goodies they are about to receive. This year, the church was divided into four areas: the puppet theatre where we got to watch a silly puppet show, a live nativity, the "North Pole" where we went to visit Santa, and the "village" itself. We visited the puppet show first and then Ava wasted no more time escorting us to the elevator where an elf whisked us up to the North Pole.
As we waited in line to visit with Santa, we took some pictures with the pretty Christmas decorations. There were beautiful trees everywhere but Ava particularly loved this one because it sported her favorite pattern--zebra print.
Finally, it was time to see Santa. Ava visited with quite a few Santas this season and she came up with a system to figure out when she was actually talking to the "real" Santa and when it was just one of his helpers. She would ask each Santa which type of cookie was his absolute favorite. If the Santa answered "chocolate chip", he was the real deal. If he said any other flavor of cookie, he was just filling in while Santa was busy at the North Pole. We are not quite sure how she devised this system, but it sure was cute. I swear, that girl's wheels are always turning. By the way, this Santa at the Alpine Village passed the test and was determined to be the REAL Santa. :) She made sure to tell him the same three things she told each Santa that she wanted for Christmas: a cash register, a shopping cart with a seat for her baby, and the bar and balance beam set for her American Girl doll, McKenna. Kevin and I were glad that she never changed her mind.
When Ava tore herself away from the REAL Santa, we rode the elevator back down to go to the village. The church transforms their gym into a gorgeous old time village setting complete with snowflakes hanging from the ceiling and structures that actually look like little stores. It is really neat. There were about ten different stores to visit where the children could make an ornament, decorate a Christmas cookie, mix up a batch of reindeer food, or get a fun treat. The first building we went to was the chapel. Inside, Ava was able to choose an ornament to place wherever she would like on a tree. Once the event ended, the church would place the tree in their actual chapel to decorate for their Christmas service. Such a fun idea.
I took pictures of a couple of the other buildings. In the Candy Cane Shop, Ava made a candy cane ornament.
In the Book Shop, Ava was able to choose a new book from their selection.
She had fun decorating a yummy sugar cookie,
making a Christmas card,
getting a Santa tattoo,
and hanging out with the Wise Men.
But Ava's absolute favorite part of the day was playing in the snow. The church had a snow machine hanging from the ceiling that was constantly dropping snow on one section of the gym. Ava had a blast in it! I was surprised that she didn't ask us if we could get one to have at home.
The Alpine Village is such a great holiday tradition for our family. I am thankful to the church for all the money, time, and effort they put into it to make it such a special experience for the children.
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