Each year JourneyChurch.tv?s Christmas Spectacular falls directly in the middle of their December sermon series. This year?s sermon series was titled Vintage Christmas. Because of this they tried to create as much synergy and cohesiveness between the two events as they could. They decided their choice of vintage year would be from the vaudeville era.
They accomplished this within their sanctuary by creating an old-school theater. They rented a red velour theatrical curtain that was gold trimmed. They created a giant proscenium above their stage, which created a cool, vintage effect in a modern church setting. Then they rented a bunch of old lighting from the 50?s. They dimmed them to create a warm glow then lit them so they?d be a visible feature on the stage.
This gave them the vintage, vaudeville variety show look that they wanted.
Outside their sanctuary, they wanted to carry the fun and visuals into the lobby and outside their building. They did this outside their church by decorating their entire building with Christmas lights. They also lit a bonfire outside and had loads of Christmas music blaring as people entered the building. They offered horse drawn carriage rides, S?more roasting, and other outdoor games as people entered.
Inside their lobby they flew a giant wreath they created. The team used their 24′ circle truss and covered it with black fabric, garland, and Christmas lights. Then they surrounded the giant wreath with large ornaments.?Some of the other cool things for kids in the lobby included a log cabin play land, a train set, racing monster trucks, cookie decorating, and Lincoln log cabin building.
For the promotional visuals, they used vintage typography in their logo for the Christmas spectacular. This helped them incorporate the two themes a bit more. It was a tough balance, because they had two different themes between their Christmas spectacular and their sermon series. The sermon series was more about family values?Norman Rockwell old school values. Then the Christmas Spectacular was about a big and exciting event. It was the biggest Christmas event in their town.
So it was a hard balance to strike. But the old school feel for the event helped them create a small amount of cohesiveness for their congregation and those involved in the sermon series.
