By Rory Dulock | Staff Writer
Throughout November and December, both Baylor and the City of Waco hold a variety of events to celebrate the holiday season.
Christmas on Fifth
A beloved Baylor tradition, Christmas on Fifth will take place on Nov. 30, featuring horse-drawn carriages, a Christmas marketplace and local food trucks.
Lauren Fisher, a student development specialist for Student Life, said Christmas on Fifth is the big holiday event and has much to offer.
“Seventh and James Baptist Church has an Advent service the day of. Bear Habitat has some activities,” Fisher said. “And then inside the Bill Daniel Student Center on the second floor, there’s tons of activities related to Christmas. There’s photos with Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus, Nutcracker performance. … And then there’s family photo opportunities.”
Fisher said there will also be a theater show in addition to the traditional live Nativity scene.
“The theater department has actually taken up the Nativity, and they will be doing more of a story kind of experience for children and families with the Nativity,” Fisher said. “So they are building a new set, and they are pulling that project together.”
Additionally, Fisher said the tree lighting will be held on Fountain Mall rather than the Quadrangle.
“The event has grown so much. We can have up to, you know, 10,000 to 12,000 to 14,000 people at the event. That’s Baylor community, students, alumni, Waco community,” Fisher said. “So we’ve outgrown the Quad for the tree lighting, so that’s why we’re moving to Fountain Mall.”
Fountain Mall will host the majority of the activities, according to Fisher.
“There’s a Christmas tree farm, which will have about 30 different trees, and then student organizations can sign up to decorate those trees, and I believe it’s a competition,” Fisher said. “There’s going to be a giant light tunnel. There’s also live performances by several different people. To close out the night, we’ll have a concert by RELIC.”
Fisher said planning for the event has been a long process, requiring a lot of collaboration.
“We are in meetings and in collaborations with different campus partners across the division,” Fisher said. “It’s a lot of logistics. We have to think about parking. We have to think about safety. We have to think about crowd control and crowd flow within the Bill Daniel Student Center, within the Fountain Mall area. We have Waco partners who come in and help us do stuff. So there is a lot of logistics that go into this, and we’ve been in meetings since the middle of October.”
Fisher said students should take advantage of the opportunities to get involved and volunteer with Christmas on Fifth.
“It’s student-run and staff-supported, so we ask that students volunteer to help with traffic flow in the buildings, to help with arts and crafts, to kind of get the word out, do advertising,” Fisher said. “It’s just a great way to close out the semester and close out the year.”
Homestead Fair
Off campus, the Homestead Fair is an event where adults and kids alike can celebrate and take part in hands-on projects at Homestead Heritage. Some attractions include a hay-ride tour, live music, seminars, shopping and crafts such as hand-weaving a basket or building a birdhouse.
Andrew Taylor, an organizer for the Homestead Fair, said the family-oriented fair started over 35 years ago.
“Over the years, it’s grown and now has an attendance of over 15,000 to 18,000 people a year,” Taylor said. “We have lots of kids activities, things for kids to do. We also have a lot of music, children’s and adult choirs and orchestras.”
Taylor said another big part of the event is the variety of foods people can try.
“There’s a whole lot of food, really just a filling around the world of cuisines — so everything from authentic Mexican food to brisket and hamburgers and homemade ice cream,” Taylor said.
The fair is extending over multiple weekends, which is a new addition this year, Taylor said.
“We’ll be open three weekends, so we’ll be open Friday, Saturday, Sunday after Thanksgiving, and then the following two weekends we’ll be open a half day on Friday and a full day on Saturday,” Taylor said.
The most popular attractions at the event are the sheepdog-herding demonstration, make-your-own activities and seminars for sustainable living, Taylor said.
“One activity that’s really neat for adults is to participate in an old-fashioned barn-raising,” Taylor said. “Just as they did in the olden days with raising a barn by hand, you can start with just wood on the ground and raise the frame of the barn, and it’s just a fun big group effort.”
Taylor said a lot of coordination goes into preparing for the fair.
“Essentially, the coordination is to coordinate a place where all those businesses can set up a space to share their products,” Taylor said. “The festival part is going to be coordinating music, bringing food together, so there’s a group of about a dozen to 15 of us, and we all coordinate different aspects of it. … The way that we look at it at Homestead Heritage, is it’s sort of a bookend to our year.”
Taylor said Homestead Heritage has been very grateful to be a part of the Waco community for more than 30 years.
“The fair is a way for us to also say thanks to the Waco community for allowing us to be here,” Taylor said. “It’s important to us because we get to meet all kinds of wonderful people and share our way of life with them. But then it’s also, I think, good for Waco. … It enriches Waco and the entire area.”
Other Traditions
In addition to those big holiday celebrations, there are many other traditions students can take part in over the coming weeks, from Christmas-themed Sundown Sessions to Santa’s Workshop.
Jordy Dickey, director of Student Activities, said one smaller festivity she is excited for takes place the day before Christmas on Fifth.
“We always do what we call ‘Oh Christmas Tree,’ and we light the tree in the [Bill Daniel Student Center] alongside President [Linda] Livingstone, and that’s been a fun little tradition as well,” Dickey said.
Dickey said it’s also always interesting to see how the student organizations put a holiday twist on their events.
“It’s always fun when we think about, from a student organization perspective, all of the events we see come in from student organizations that kind of take on a holiday-theme approach to celebrate the season,” Dickey said.
According to Dickey, these traditions are important for the Baylor community because they remind everyone what the season is all about.
“It’s a moment to pause, to reflect, to express gratitude and to just prepare our hearts and minds for what the season means,” Dickey said. “It’s a season of being together, a season of hope, a season of joy, a season to celebrate our faith. So we’re always grateful for these moments. … And together as a community, let’s gather to remember these significant holidays and moments.”
