The congregation at Snyder Memorial Baptist Church will offer its Singing Christmas Tree for six performances this year. There will be 7:30 p.m. daily showings Dec. 3-6 with additional matinee performances at 4 p.m. on Dec 5 and 6.

The musical production features 250 singers from the children’s, youth and adult choirs, as well as a hand-bell choir and a 40-piece orchestra. 

When the church began the event in 1980, they planned to continue the performance for a few years. “It was such a big hit with the community, we kept doing it,” said Sara Barefoot, the music and worship ministry assistant. “It’s become a church-wide mission with hundreds involved either performing or behind the scenes.”

Barefoot herself has been involved for 34 years. Through the years it became a family event as her children also took part in different aspects.

The Snyder congregation takes a similar approach with other families contributing and taking part as performers, ushers, or helping to collect canned food. Attendees are asked to bring a canned food item to the performance to be donated to local food banks.

“We have some performers who have been involved since the beginning, performing as children, then in the youth and now in the adult choir,” Barefoot said.

While the event is a local tradition for the performance itself, Barefoot said it also gives community members a look into Snyder Memorial Baptist Church and what it offers. 

“The overall goal is to spread the message of Christmas,” Barefoot said. “If anyone who attends hasn’t heard the message, they can and we hope they start to ask questions. We are always available to follow-up with them.”

While tickets for all performances have been given out, you can still get on the wait list for returned tickets by calling the church. Doors open one hour prior to each performance. Tickets are honored until 30 minutes before performance time. After that point, viewers are admitted with or without a ticket.

Snyder Memorial Baptist Church is located at 701 Westmont Drive. For more information call 484-3191 or visit www.SnyderMBC.com.