Jesus House to have Old-Fashioned Christmas Fair

November 12, 2021

MIDLAND The Jesus House Women and Children’s Center will be looking to get everyone in the holiday spirit with its Old-Fashioned Christmas Fair.

The event, which is being held for the first time and will benefit the Jesus House Women and Children’s Center, is scheduled 6 to 9:30 p.m. Friday at Mid-Cities Church in Midland.

The fair will offer a look back in time to “an old-fashioned Christmas” with food, candy and a lighted hayride through the neighborhood’s Christmas lights and living nativity scene.

“The old fashioned Christmas celebration is really about getting back to the old school style of celebrating Christmas with the trees, with families, with friends and some good music and fellowship,” Board Member at Jesus House Women and Children’s Center Dustin Fawcett said.

Fawcett said that guests will be able to enjoy music and artists who will be coming to play later in the evening.

The special guest music artist will be Matt New, a Midland-based singer-songwriter who was on season 17 of NBC’s show The Voice.

“We’re so excited,” Fawcett said of having New perform. “He’s local, born and raised. The community stood behind him when he was on The Voice, so having a big name like him is great. Our organization has been in contact with him for a long time and he’s wanted to help and participate. We know it’ll bring some folks in who probably wouldn’t have been thinking of coming. He’s a good, Christian man and we’re excited to have him.”

Since New’s appearance on The Voice, he has been working on his debut EP in Atlanta, Ga., and Nashville, Tenn., where he plans to release that project next spring.

“We are thrilled to have him,” Director of the Jesus House Women and Children’s Center Shirley Almanza said. “Matt has left the area and lives in Atlanta and Nashville to pursue his singing-songwriting career. We’re very thrilled and privileged to have him come and perform for us.”

Volunteer Tiffany Perucca prepares plates of food during lunch service Thursday morning at Jesus House. The Jesus House Women and Children’s Center will be hosting an Old-Fashioned Christmas Fair on November 19 at Mid-Cities Church in Midland. The event will offer food, candy and hayrides through neighborhood Christmas lights as well as a live-action nativity scene. Funds raised during the Christmas event will go to benefit the Jesus House Women and Children’s Center. (Eli Hartman|Odessa American)

In addition, the fair will also invite the community members to participate in creating their own custom tree and there will be a tree decorating competition.

Fawcett says the Jesus House Women and Children’s Center is reaching out to youth groups and churches and anyone else that wants to participate.

“We want to have the whole community engaged and have the Christmas spirit,” Fawcett said. “We feel like we need something positive in the community and this is an attempt for that. We’re also raising money for a tremendously good cause. These people that we’re helping; they’ve fallen on tough times and the Christmas spirit is about lifting up the least among us. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

A silent auction will also be going on and people can purchase their pre-decorated Christmas tree as well.

With this being the inaugural event, Fawcett says the Jesus House Women and Children’s Center is hoping for a decent turnout.

“The Jesus House Women and Children’s Center has been opened for about a year now, so this is really to help us continue to get our feet underway and service as many women and children as we can and give them the good resources that we can to help them be successful.”

The center opened earlier this year in February.

“Of course, this is a Christian organization, so we really believe in the Christian message of helping those who are often times less fortunate,” Fawcett said. “That’s the whole mission of Jesus House Women and Children’s Center and the reason behind this is that it’s a unique organization. We wanted to put on a unique event that children of all ages will enjoy.”

Volunteer Vona Palmer prepares plates of food during lunch service Thursday morning at Jesus House. (Eli Hartman|Odessa American)

There’s no set goal of how much they hope to raise from the fair.

“Anything is positive,” Fawcett said. “We’re not having to spend a huge amount of resources. Mid-Cities Church has been very gracious. Matt New has been very gracious with his time and talents. Everyone that is participating is donating a lot of their time and talents and treasure towards this. Anything and everything is welcomed and we’re excited for it.”

Over this past year, the Jesus House Women and Children’s Center has had a few fundraisers rescheduled due to different reasons from the pandemic to the weather.

“The whole nation and world has been hurting,” Fawcett said. “Our first fundraiser was back last February, which was difficult to put on. We had a comedian whose flight was canceled due to the freeze from the winter storm around Valentine’s Day. This whole event, we had the freeze and we had COVID, so really this is our second go-around to raise some money for a good cause. We’re excited to see people and to have fellowship. It’s very exciting to tell people in person about the good that this organization is bringing.”

This event was also supposed to take place last year but couldn’t due to social distancing guidelines.

“We are so excited to be able to do this,” Almanza said. “We had this planned for last year, but COVID got in the way. We had to respect the social distancing laws. We’re really excited to go through with it this year. It’s going to be so much fun.”

More information on the event can be found at tinyurl.com/af53cudp.