NAC TV had a chance to interview some representatives from local Church groups in Neepawa about their traditions and perspectives about Christmas and how their beliefs traditions, and experiences affect their lives and their community.    

Rita Friesen, from the Neepawa United Anglican Church, shared their Christmas traditions since she was young as being raised by a Mennonite family and the good memories about it. She also shared about transitioning from a Mennonite life to being involved in the Neepawa United Anglican Church in her later years and now becoming a Lay Minister.  She shared how she enjoys celebrating a simple Christmas with her family and how she passes this on to their children and grand children. When asked about the commercialization of Christmas compared to simple celebrations, she said “When I see people that I love and respect,  agonizing over what to give someone else who already has everything, I am baffled. The needs in our community, in our country, in our world are so great that we would be more gratified, more blessed, if we share it with someone who truly had nothing than trying to figure out one more thing for somebody who already has everything.”

Friesen also shared about inclusivity in Church organizations, how she accepts services for people coming from different denominations or even to non- Church goers saying that she has no boundaries. She said that other church denominations may have boundaries and would not be comfortable with someone not from their denomination to host a service but she thinks that’s fair because that’s where they stand.   

Pastor Vlad Makyeyev, from the Neepawa First Baptist Church, shared his experience about celebrating Christmas in Ukraine during his childhood years and shared a little bit of history about it when true devoted Christians celebrated Christmas underground during the time when Ukraine was still under a Communist regime. However, when Ukraine became an independent country, Christmas became a big public holiday but since there are many Church groups and denominations, Ukrainians celebrate Christmas differently.

Makyeyev also shared that currently with the ongoing war in his home country, Christmas is still celebrated by Ukranians, the Churches are still open on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and his relatives also visit each other to eat together and exchange presents. He also shared his journey as an immigrant, how difficult it was at first and costly but then they still decided to move a decade ago. “Retrospectively, if you look back, I think it was God’s will to move us from Ukraine to Canada in the fall of 2013, just before the first conflict started between Ukraine and Russia, in the eastern part of Ukraine.

"Personally, I know that Christians believe differently about participating in a war, picking up a gun and shoot at another human being but I do not believe,  that in my heart and in my mind, I might be wrong, but I think personally I would really struggle to pick up a machine gun and shoot at another human being", said Makyeyev.

Marvin Beaumont, from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, shared how he celebrated Christmas during his childhood days and the traditions that comes along with it like the Christmas pageant, preparing presents for everybody and being together as a family. When asked about the benefit of Christmas traditions to our mental health and well-being, he answered, “One of the biggest problems we have is loneliness and a simple thing of a smile can reaffirm in a person that ‘Oh I’m important!’ That a person smiled at me or said hello to me or if you did something for them. It does something inside you or in your head. A hand shake or a hug. Those things go a long way!”
 
Beaumont was asked about the Christmas Dinner that they usually organized before Covid and why they decided to not continue. “We found that many people that came to the Christmas Dinner had other family events that they were going to that day, so they were in a rush to get away to go to their family’s dinner so we thought, ‘Well why are we putting a dinner if they are already going to another dinner’. And through Covid we found out that most people are taken care of at Christmas time. This community is a great community and we did an event last year on the day before Christmas and it was going to be to meet that special need and we only have four people show up and it just told the committee that maybe we are not hitting the right thing. A lot of the service organizations were giving out hampers and caroling and doing lot of social things and we just felt like that we maybe duplicating stuff that wasn’t really needed right now, maybe in the future,” said Beaumont.