It’s Christmas on the Peninsula – and the celebration starts tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 28).

Local businesses, churches and more than 20 community groups will be helping to get the community in the spirit with Christmas on the Peninsula – a day-long festival starting with a 9 a.m. traditional Breakfast in Bethlehem at First United Church, all the way to a 6 p.m. Carols By Candlelight sing-along with Sarona Mynhardt and the White Rock Children’s Choir at St. John’s Presbyterian Church.

Along the way, festivities will include a café and charity fair at Star of the Sea, film screenings, a Christmas Market and a children’s zone at White Rock Community Centre, seasonal readings of stories and poetry by White Rock Mayor Catherine Ferguson – and this reporter – at Coffee With Attitude at Five Corners, a performance by the Sweet Adelines at Coast Capital Playhouse, instrumental entertainment at Small Ritual Coffee House, main stage entertainers at the Miramar community centre, a children-friendly candlelight procession with a donkey and a mini-horse around the Hillcrest Centre and Miramar Village block, and ending with a performance by the Salvation Army Band and formal Christmas tree lighting at Miramar Plaza.

The event marks not only the beginning of this Christmas season, but what organizer and driving force Liv Butow envisions as an annual festival that will make December as joyful and community-involving as White Rock’s summertime Spirit of the Sea Festival.

“I grew up in Norway, in the little village of Moss, south of Oslo,” said Butow, who came to the Peninsula several years ago from Prince George, where she was highly involved in that area’s business improvement association and community arts council.

She remembers Christmases in Moss vividly as month-long celebrations of increasing excitement and merriment – all triggered by the official launch of the season at the end of November.

“There would be a huge Christmas tree in front of the church and the community square,” she said.

“We’d all be dancing around and singing carols, and the merchants would all have stuck up paper in the windows of their businesses. After the mayor had declared the Christmas season open, the paper came down and there would be all these wonderful displays.”

It’s part of the reason, she believes, that Christmas has always been special to her, and why she’s been involved in organizing special events all her life – “or, at least, since I was 16 and started a folk song club in Norway.”

And Butow believes there’s every potential for Christmas to be just as exciting here – and be a destination for visitors from throughout the region and beyond.

“I’d love, one day, to see the whole of Johnston Road decorated with lights over the street – like they have in Norway – and have carolers in old-fashioned costumes singing on each corner, and the front of all the businesses decorated,” she said.

“We’ve had a good response this year – but next year will definitely be bigger,” said Butow, who said her organizing efforts have shown a distinct need in the community for such a festival.

Fellow committee member Brian Walks – who helps organize and promote St. Mark’s Anglican’s popular Journey of Christmas display annually – said Butow has been tireless in her efforts to get Christmas on the Peninsula off the ground, including attending practically every Christmas-themed event in the community last year.

“She’s been working on this for close to 15 months – she was a one-person show up to the beginning of this year,” Walks said.

“I’ve been involved since the spring, because of my love for the Christmas holiday, and also for the community.

“The other component of this is that it’s a means of publishing and promoting all the Christmas events on the Peninsula, from the launch on Nov. 28 to Dec. 26, the last day of the White Rock Players Club’s pantomime.”

He said that when people attend this Saturday’s events – for which a shuttle bus will run continuously from venue to venue and parking area to parking area – they will receive not only a sheet detailing the day’s activities, but also a calendar of events throughout the month.

“That’s something we need in the area – before I’ve just been one person trying to publicize one event. This takes it to a new level.

“It gets more people involved with participating and creates an appetite for more – people love that sense of community spirit."

Christmas on the Peninsula

Christmas on the Peninsula events include (shuttle bus running between venues every 15 minutes, 11.am. to 6 p.m.):

• Breakfast in Bethlehem at First United Church (9 a.m. to noon, 15385 Semiahmoo Ave.); living tableaux including a petting zoo, crafts and breakfast;

• Christmas Market at White Rock Community Centre (10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Miramar Village, Johnston Road at Russell Avenue); old fashioned market with a hint of Victoriana;

• Christmas Café and Charity Fair at Star of the Sea (10 a.m. to 3 p.m., 15262 Pacific Ave.) local charities’ wares, refreshments;

• Open House at Coast Capital Playhouse (11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., 1532 Johnston Rd.) White Rock Players Club history, tours, tea and snacks;

• Christmas Card Embroidery at Laura’s Fashion Fabrics (11 a.m. to 4 p.m., 1552 Johnston Rd.); try out machine embroidering your own Christmas card;

• Food vendors at Miramar Plaza (noon to 6 p.m.);

• Christmas at Five Corners (noon to 3 p.m., Five Corners merchants). Christmas trees, music, readings by Mayor Catherine Ferguson and Alex Browne (Coffee With Attitude), specials, merchants in Victorian clothing;

• Christmas Bazaar and Tea/Nativity Scenes exhibit, Anglican Church of the Holy Trinity (15115 Roper Ave.); a bazaar featuring popular gift baskets;

• Films at the Salvation Army Church (15417 Roper Ave.): Charlie Brown’s Christmas (noon to 12:30 p.m., 2-2:30 p.m.), The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (12:45-1:15 p.m., 2:45-3:15 p.m.), also free parking for the day in the church lot;

• Film at Fellowship Baptist Church (15138 Prospect Ave., noon to 2 p.m., 2-4 p.m.), featuring the story of the Nativity;

• The Sweet Adelines at Coast Capital Playhouse (1532 Johnston Rd., 1-2 p.m.), harmony singing;

• Miramar/Community Centre activities (2-4 p.m.), including snow sculpture, weaving and spinning demonstrations, a holly sale, model train, face-painting, Christmas-card painting, fused glass, stained glass;

• Instrumental Christmas at Small Ritual Coffee House (1237 Johnston Rd., 2-4 p.m.), featuring relaxing Christmas music;

• Children’s Zone at the Community Centre (2-4 p.m.) activities for children with bonded volunteers from Peace Portal Alliance Church;

• Main Stage Entertainment at the Community Centre (2-5 p.m.), music and refreshments;

• Candlelight Procession (Hillcrest Centre, Miramar Village, 4-4:45 p.m.); families can borrow an electric candle (one per family) and follow the donkey and his friend the mini-horse around the block and through Bryant Park;

• Salvation Army Band (Miramar Plaza, 4:45-5 p.m.);

• Christmas Lighting ceremony at Miramar Plaza (5-5:30 p.m.) with Mayor Catherine Ferguson and the Stella Maris Concert Choir led by Trudi Stammer;

• Music at Miramar Plaza (5:30-5:45 p.m.);

• Carols by Candlelight (St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 1480 George St., 6-7 p.m.), featuring the White Rock Children’s Choir directed by Sarona Mynhardt.