Highland Park Church to hold annual Lights of Lakeland event

LAKELAND, Fla- In its ninth year, Highland Park Church will once again present Lights of Lakeland, a free Christmas experience and live nativity walk-through, next week.

The event will be held from 6:30pm to 9pm Dec. 5, 6, 7, 12, 13 and 14.

"Highland Park Church presents Lights of Lakeland every year as a way to not only bless the community with a free, fun, and family-friendly Christmas experience, but also to present the Christmas story to the community," said Highland Park Church communications director Mendy Cummins.

Lights of Lakeland is a two part walk-through experience that begins with a Winter Wonderland, complete with photo opportunities, a general store just for the kids, a Sweet Shoppe, and a food court with local food trucks. Guests can take pictures with Mr. and Mrs. Claus, as well as meet famous characters like the Grinch, the Avengers, Cinderella, and Buddy the Elf. New additions this year include:

Communications Director Mendy Cummins
strikes a pose with Lights of Lakeland's
newest addition.

-Rudy the Reindeer

-Elsa and Anna

-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

-Expanded Food Court

-Water Wheel

-Eiffel Tower entrance

As guests exit the Winter Wonderland, they are transported back in time as they enter a live action Bethlehem with scenes leading up to the birth of Christ. The atmosphere is complete with live camels, donkeys, and sheep. The walk-through finishes with the opportunity for guests to enter a prayer station.

"Our church has seen several families come to know Christ and experience freedom for their whole family after hearing the story of Christ's birth," said Cummins.

Over 1,500 volunteers will help run the two week event, and it is expected to draw a crowd of 30,000 people from the Lakeland community.

George Jenkins High School junior Sydney Kurtz has volunteered at Lights of Lakeland for the past three years, working in the General Store, as a Bethlehem character, and as a puppeteer.

"I like that we get to impact the community in a way that shows Jesus not as a boring guy but someone that changed the world," said Kurtz.

Emily Osley, a senior at Lakeland Collegiate High School, has volunteered every year since Lights of Lakeland began in 2005.

"I love volunteering at Lights of Lakeland because of all the people! I love knowing that I've helped make their holiday season special," said Osley.

Bronson and Sam Gamble and their newborn son, Micah, play
Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus at last year's Lights of Lakeland. 

Make sure to look for the Highland Park Church float at the Lakeland Christmas Parade Dec. 4. It is rumored Buddy the Elf and Jovie will be making an appearance once again. 

For more information, visit http://hplakeland.com/connect/lights-of-lakeland or call the church office at (863) 647-3518.

Follow Highland Park Church on Twitter or Instagram @hplakeland to keep up to date or search #lightsoflakeland to see photos and videos from the event.

Highland Park Church is located at 4777 Lakeland Highlands Road Lakeland, Fl 33813.

Coming out of the darkness...

Hello there blog readers! I know you are all probably in total shock right now seeing that I haven't posted here in nearly 3 years, but sometimes you just have to blog! Or you have an assignment that has extra credit....I'm in a journalism class and if we post our most recent piece on a blog we can get extra credit! And who doesn't love extra credit? So of course, I will be posting an article about Lights of Lakeland. Feel free to read it or totally disregard it, whichever you would like. But who knows, you could be following the blog of a future world renowned journalist (but I doubt that haha!).

Happy reading :)
Arin