We invite you to join us for one (or more) of our Christmas Eve services. 

10am | Interactive Family Service

This is a fun telling of the Christmas story including interactive elements, surprises and a grand "Happy Birthday Jesus!" ALL are welcome to join us! Gather your friends and family, come in your PJ's and if you're able, bring a non-perishable food item or a toiletry item for our needs-shelves. The kids will have an opportunity to place them in the manger!

3pm & 11pm | Candle Lighting Service

This is a beautiful service full of singing, learning and reflection. We'll close our time together by circling up and passing the Christ-light as we sing carols of God's faithfulness and goodness while holding our candles. 

This Silent Night’s description of the heavenly atmosphere can be only somewhat appreciated.

The description "all is bright" could only somewhat be seen because then candy cane would have to peer through the de-leafed trees overhead.

Confined but free. It was tangled in branches but visible.

Exposed but enshrouded. It was visible but covered by overhead branches.

Light but dark. There were no leaves to shade it but another time of year it wouldn't be touched by the sun.

High but low. It wasn't on the ground, or high in the air. It was 5 ft off the ground, a moderate height.

East but West. In the middle of the east and west.

North but South. In the middle of the north and south. In fact, if you looked at a map of the search boundaries, the Candy Cane was almost smack dab in the middle.

Simple but smart. It was near the library...a simple way to get smart.

Rules but rebellious. It was next to the court of appeals where those who are rebellious face then rules.

Have you heard the legend of the first golden candy cane?

As it was placed the stream was small.

As it was found the waters ran tall.

It wasn't our intention to place it in a high water-table area but when it was placed the ground was "sloshy" and we knew of the potential for it to rise and create a swamp.

If one stood on top of the Eiffel Tower's highest point, how many Ross Manders' (in his "preaching boots") would it take to grab the candy cane if it were dangling from the top of the spire on the Empire State Building (if in fact it were atop the Empire State Building, which it's not because that's outside our boundaries)? 

Now, if Ross slid down George Washington's nose, as depicted on Mt. Rushmore, while carrying a jar of olives (a favorite snack of his) and whistling a Christmas carol, how many birds would he disrupt, how many bears would he scare and how many tourists would capture it on film?

That long of a slide would be pretty fun, I bet. Hm. I wonder how many of those slides it would take to equal the number of Ross's bridging the tower gap? 

I bet that if a person that tall in feet ate 15 Hershey Kisses worth of height and stood on top of Switchfoot's Scrappy Little Christmas Tree, they'd be looking the Golden Candy Cane in the eye!

This clue was a bunch of nonsense that told you it was roughly 5ft off the ground. Basic math and research. Eating 15 Hershey kisses would decrease the height, not add to it.   

Combat urban heating?

Clean the air?

Improve the soil?

Reduce noise pollution?

Decrease stress and blood pressure?

Just a few of the reasons the Candy Cane nestled up here.

All these are benefits of trees, which the candy cane was gripped in.

Like the wisemen of old, let the star point you in the direction of the golden candy cane.

Stars, when drawn, typically have 5 points. Our region's "Star" is 5 points in Levittown and if you look on a map, it is distinctly pointing North-east up New Falls.

They say Socrates was a well-dressed man. 

I've heard that too, but his fashion languished as he got older.

Didn't he have a son named Doug? Yew are mistaken. You're thinking of Sophroniscus. 

What about his death? 

How did that happen? 

It's fascinating but less relevant. 

"Yew" is the key to this clue but it's a directive. A "well-dressed" man is "spruced up", "languished" fashion is "pining." "Doug" is a "fir" tree. All these could be found at the Fire Station #2 tree lot. Socrates died from Hemlock poisoning which is a type off coniferous tree but not one we typically buy as a Christmas tree.

If this were the day of Jesus' crucifixion, the saints of God might frighten me.

In Matthew 27, the Holy One's of God come out of their graves and walk around when Jesus dies. There is a cemetery acrosss the street directly behind Emily Methodist Church.

We're feeling generous. Here are helps for #2 & #8 (we won't bother with #4, it's honestly not worth the help, move on from it...let that be your help). Keep in mind that not everything in every clue is relevant. How could anyone possibly know how many birds Ross would disrupt?

#2

These are all descriptions of its placement. It's trapped but not so much that you can't get it. It's visible but covered. The sun hits it now but it wouldn't other times of the year. It's not high off the ground but it's not on the ground. It's in the middle of the east and west, north and south. Etc. Etc.

#8

This has nothing to do with Socrates except the means of his death is very (VERY!) loosely related. Read it slowly. Anything seem off? Why? What else in the clue could be related to that?  

That baby's cry sure shines bright at night.

A baby's cry sounds like "Wawa" which is bright at night and just down the road.

As a general reminder of how these clues typically work: they start very broad and tend to narrow the search field, either by offering descriptions of what's around the item or cutting off corners of the map. For example, at the first clue, the map was the entire playing field but several of these clues are trimming the map down to a more specific area. We're zooming in on where the cane is...assuming you can figure out the clues :) 

#9

It might help to pick up a bible :) 

What happened to the saints (or holy ones) of God at Jesus' crucifixion and why might that scare someone?