Message gets out on social media

Pastors from New Prague’s Faith Community sent a message to the community urging them to share in the Christmas spirit and attend the church service of their choice during the holiday season.

Along with the message, found elsewhere on this page, they recorded a video of all the pastors sharing this message. That message was posted on The New Prague Times’ Facebook page Monday afternoon. Within five minutes, it already had several “likes,” meaning people had seen the video and clicked on the “like” button.

By 10 a.m. Tuesday, the video had been seen more than 13,000 times. It had more than 185 likes and had been “shared” 129 times. If you haven’t seen the video, check it out on our Facebook page. If you don’t have internet access, read the message on this page. There are many wonderful churches in this community and you will find them all welcoming places to worship. Look in our Christmas Section for a page that shows all the area churches and worship times for the holiday.

* * * * * Also in our Christmas section, you will see a New Prague Times tradition. For more than 30 years, The Times has invited children from area schools to create Christmas drawings, and businesses from throughout the community sponsor the drawings which we publish in our special holiday section, along with photos and stories about the holidays in New Prague. This year there were 234 of these drawings sponsored, and another 30 were featured on the front page of the section. Some of the sponsors request certain children, others choose certain schools, while some just say “pick one.” The children are thrilled to see their artwork on these pages, but we cannot publish all of the drawings that are submitted. These are placed in books and put on display at Roundbank, US Bank and First Bank and Trust in New Prague. We thank all of the advertisers for sponsoring the drawings, as well as all the children who took part not only this year, but in past years as well.

* * * * * Christmas can be a busy time of year with all of the family traditions. One family tradition that we had for many years was to go to downtown Minneapolis to see the Dayton’s display in their eighth-floor auditorium. Each year, they chose a different theme, usually a popular children’s story, and people would line up and walk their way through the different scenes. Jenny and I actually started this tradition when we were dating. We continued after having children, even when we lived two hours away in western Minnesota. The tradition continued after Dayton’s changed their name to Marshall Fields. By the time Dayton’s became Macy’s, the kids had outgrown the experience and Jenny and I never really found the time to go. But when we went, we had to make a stop in the gift shop afterward, purchasing whatever book or toy that tied in with that year’s theme and going to visit Santa Claus and get a photo taken. The experience was not complete until we stopped at the bake shop and got gingerbread cookies to eat in the lobby before heading back downstairs and doing our shopping. Many Minnesotans shared that same experience, an experience that was lost when Macy’s closed their downtown store in 2017. Since then, a group of investors have been renovating the building. The Dayton’s Project, as it is called, is expected to open this summer. Here’s hoping they make some attempt to bring back this holiday tradition.

* * * * * We at The New Prague Times wish all of our readers a Merry Christmas.