For more photos from the parade, visit our .

The EMU community welcomed the Advent season all December long with events that spread holiday cheer to students, faculty, staff, alumni and neighbors alike. For a quick rundown of those events and some wonderfully shot photos from Visual Media Manager Macson McGuigan, read on.

‘Tis the Season Christmas Concert

The ’Tis the Season Christmas Concert kicked off a busy weekend of festivities on Dec. 1 in Lehman Auditorium with two hours of Christmas songs from every music ensemble at EMU. Among the night’s highlights were a performance of the chorus from George Frideric Handel’s Hallelujah, a singalong Christmas medley with the crowd and the Christmas poems recited by EMU Director of Bands and concert emcee Kyle Remnant in between sets. We would be remiss if we didn’t mention Remnant’s bright red, yuletide-themed suit as well as the master class in conducting that Herm put on display (just a few minutes after the night’s conductor Benjamin Bergey disappeared stage left).

Soloists included vocalists Jacob Nissley, Joshua Stucky, Afton Rhodes-Lehman and Mikayla Pettus, and Luke Haynes on organ.

Harrisonburg Holiday Parade

EMU did its part in spreading Christmas cheer through downtown Harrisonburg, Virginia, with a float in the city’s downtown parade on Dec. 2. 

The Chamber Singers, with director Benjamin Bergey, performed “Riu Riu Chiu,” a Spanish Christmas carol, from the float. Many student and staff volunteers greeted parade goers with blue Hershey’s kisses and candy canes. President Susan Schultz Huxman waved to the massive crowds lining the street while her husband Jesse Huxman drove the float along the route. 

The theme of the float was “Holidays Around the World.” Inspired by the peace pole on campus, decorators placed “peace” in 20 different languages around the float, which also sported blue lights, faux snow, a Christmas tree and about 80 miniature flags from countries all across the world.

Thanks to the advancement office, theater and music departments and the president’s office for their roles in shaping the parade. Those on the planning committee included Sara Wittig, Nicole Litwiller, Braydon Hoover, Bergey, Shannon Dove, Monica Pangle and Jon Styer.

Lighting of the Green

The festive lights adorning campus and wrapping around the Christmas tree at Thomas Plaza were switched on during the fifth annual Lighting of the Green ceremony on the evening of Dec. 4. Students, faculty, staff and retirees enjoyed warm cider and hot cocoa and snacked on cookies while listening to songs from the EMU Jazz Ensemble and Chamber Singers. As dusk fell over campus, a candle lighting ushered in the advent season.

Santa Claus even made an appearance, handing out candy canes and boasting that nobody at EMU made this year’s naughty list.

EMU President Susan Schultz Huxman marked the occasion with some of her trademark rhetoric: “Our act of turning on the lights and celebrating with a little Christmas cheer is a celebration of hope in a weary world. As a Christian university, we celebrate the miraculous birth of Jesus, the prince of peace. As an Anabaptist voice on the religious landscape active for decades in interfaith dialogue, we also acknowledge and affirm the religious traditions of our non-Christian brothers and sisters.”

Special thanks to Facilities Management for their many hours of tireless work stringing the beautiful lights on buildings and walkways, and thanks to the President’s Office, which sponsored the event.

Holiday note-writing

Inside the University Commons on Dec. 8, EMU students, faculty, staff and alumni joined together to hand-write hundreds of letters mailed to prospective admitted students from all across the country. According to the admissions office, which organizes the annual Note-Writing Extravaganza, more than 725 notecards were written to over 500 prospective students. A total of 103 EMU students, alumni and employees pitched in to help give future EMU Royals a warm winter welcome.

Participants could give their writing hand a break with a visit to the snack table, where an assortment of peppermint bark, cookies, coffee, cheese and crackers were laid out. Or, they could browse the EMU apparel and gear — EMU disc golf discs would make a great stocking stuffer! — for sale at the swag shop. Every five letters written earned a raffle ticket for a chance to win a gift basket.

Zack Furr, a junior from Staunton, Virginia, majoring in digital media and photography, sat at a table with a few friends and faculty adviser Jerry Holsopple. Because his list of recipients included students interested in his major, he took the time to write about the Visual and Communication Arts (VaCA) program and how its classes had changed his life.

Furr said he remembers receiving a handwritten letter from someone at EMU while he was in high school: “It left a nice impression. EMU was the only university that did that.”

The season’s first snow

For one magical morning this month, the campus was blanketed in a fresh layer of snowfall. Although it quickly melted away in a few hours, it provided a beautiful backdrop for students headed to their last day of classes before final exams. McGuigan shot the photos with an aerial drone hovering above campus on the morning of Dec. 11. A post of the photos on EMU’s official Instagram account garnered a record-setting 742 likes, as of Dec. 19.

Sarah’s Christmas in clay

This season saw the return of the elaborately ornate and delightfully detailed diorama of clay figurines at the Facilities Management office. 

Sarah Gupta (nĂ©e Regan), who began crafting the miniature replicas of her coworkers in 2021, added some new twists to this year’s winter scene. Each day, members of the facilities team unfold a note or poem tucked inside one of the clay gift packages and read it aloud. 

Another addition to the diorama, says Administrative Coordinator Lori Gant, is campus security guard Elizabeth Jones. Jones, who is often decked out in pink, started working as a citation officer this year. She is immortalized in clay, pink clipboard in hand, issuing a parking citation to Venue Coordinator Jason Hange, who Gant says parked in a wrong space once. 

Unfortunately, with Gupta departing EMU in the year ahead, this could be the final time we get to see her clay creations.

Advent Greetings

EMU’s Advent greeting for 2023 features a special message from President Susan Schultz Huxman and music from the EMU Wind Ensemble.

And, last but not least, Patty’s cookies…

Each winter, Patty Eckard, office coordinator with EMU’s Business and Leadership Department, fires up the oven and bakes thousands of Christmas cookies for family, friends and anyone passing through the Campus Center office. This year, she says, she put on her baking gloves earlier than ever before — the beginning of October. The result: 4,000 to 5,000 delicious cookies in 36 different types, including more than 500 sugar cookies. One of our favorites was a sugar cookie with a “stained glass” center made from Jolly Rancher hard candy.

“Joy to the World” pianist, Benjamin Bergey ’11, vocal performance and church music. Text: Isaac Watts, Psalms of David, 1719, alt. Music: “From Handel,” Lowell Mason, Occasional Psalm and Hymn Tunes, 1836

Produced by EMU’s marketing and communications department. Director and editor: Lindsey Kolb, EMU ’07, visual and communication arts program ().

EMU’s online Advent greeting for 2013 features the the music of alumni and friends who are part of , a Harrisonburg-based folk/bluegrass band.

Director and editor: Lindsey Kolb ’07
Assistants: Anne Diller ’14, Erica Garber ’14, Jessica Hostetler ’08 and Michael Sheeler ’13
Lindsey, Anne, Erica and Michael are graduates of EMU’s visual and communication arts program (emu.edu/vaca).

Music: “Come Down, O Love Divine,” text by Laudi Spirituali del Bianoco da Siena, 1851; tr. Ricard F. Littledale People’s Hymnal, 1867, alt. Arranged by Seth Crissman ’09. Performed and recorded by The Walking Roots Band (thewalkingrootsband.com), a Harrisonburg-based folk/bluegrass/roots band made up of friends (many of whom are EMU graduates) who come together to make music.

Read more…

2009 Advent scriptures include the following:

• Week One – Luke 1:26-28
• Week Two – Matthew 1:18-25
• Week Three – Luke 1:39-56
• Week Four – Luke 2:1-19

The series began with a reflection by Dorothy Jean Weaver, professor of New Testament at the seminary.

"Advent marks the beginning of the liturgical year in the Christian tradition, a beginning focused on the coming of Jesus into our world that calls for thoughtful preparation for this coming and for the second coming of Jesus," said Brian Martin Burkholder, EMU campus pastor. "In these weeks leading up to Christmas day, we invite everyone into this season of thoughtful and spiritual preparation by using the Advent reflections provided from the EMU and EMS campus community."

"Readers are invited this year to share their own personal reflections at the end of each day’s entry as well, building a sense of community among followers of Christ all over the world," Martin Burkholder added.

To automatically receive each devotional, go to emu.edu/blog/devotions/subscription.

The ornaments of our home are the friends who frequent it.

This thought, not original with me but firmly implanted in my thick cerebrum, reverberated down the cobwebbed corridors of my mind as once again I participated in the ancient annual ritual of decorating our Christmas tree.

In some ways, this process has followed a similar pattern ever since Anna and I moved to Harrisonburg in 1971, which now seems like light years ago.

An EMU Campus Center ornament, released in 1988, adorns the Bishop family tree.

For the first time in our married lives, we occupied a house that belonged to us (and the mortgage company, who sent us a Christmas greeting that read, “Merry Christmas, from our house to our house”).

Prior to this, we strung some lights and decorations around our rental apartment in Elkhart, Ind., but didn’t bother with dragging a tree into our cramped dwelling space. Besides, we motored the long distance eastward to spend the holidays with extended family.

Real vs. Artificial

Once settled into our new Shenandoah Valley surroundings, and having an aversion to artificial trees, we started a tradition of trekking to a local evergreen farm, and, after heated debate over possible choices, selected a powerless pine, cut it down and dragged it home, leaving a trail of needles in its wake.

One year, we bent the rules and opted for a tabletop artificial tree. On that occasion, we had an early Christmas gift, daughter Sara having taken in a frisky kitten that loved to defy laws of gravity, and we knew we’d have difficulty shielding dangling ornaments from Santa’s paws.

Ornaments come in a host of shapes and sizes. It’s challenging fun to add one or more new ones every year, while not neglecting or, heaven forbid, mishandling or discarding those that have been around for a long time.

In the 36th year of trimming a tree, I note how many of the accumulated ornaments have special meaning – gifts from family members, from workplace colleagues or special purchases over the years, i.e., a miniature Lionel Sante Fe diesel engine, a No. 53 “Herbie” VW Beetle, a “Howdy Doody” lunchkettle and thermos, a Santa surfing to a Beach Boys’ tune, an Ocean City, N.J., pendant, an EMU Campus Center ornament and others.

Oldest Friends Mean the Most

The different ornaments that deck our tree serve as a reminder of the diversity of friends wife Anna and I have come to acquire. Like ornaments, they are fragile, requiring special handling and care. And like ornaments, our oldest friends mean the most to us.

But friendships are more than decorative. Each of us needs friends in order to branch out and be more than we can be on our own.

Friends are among the greatest gifts we can have if we don’t treat them like possessions. And, they don’t, or shouldn’t, wear out if handled with love and care.

Unlike ornaments, we can’t just let friends hang there, dangling. We need to enjoy them, appreciate the beauty they add to our lives all year round and don’t put them into storage boxes when the initial illumination and delight begins to fade.

Not only that, but the best Friend we can have is the One who’s birth we celebrate and who loves us unconditionally, whether or not we invite Him into our midst. He is the bright and shining Morning Star atop the tree of faith.

Three staff persons from ˛ÝÝ®ÉçÇř were among eight Harrisonburg area people who worked together to create resource materials for a 2005 Easter to Pentecost worship series.

The materials, titled "Unbound!", with a different subtitle for each Sunday, are intended for use by pastors and other congregational leaders and will soon be available in "Leader" magazine, published by Faith and Life Resources, a division of Mennonite Publishing Network.

At the invitation of Marlene Kropf, director of the Office of Congregational Life, Elkhart, Ind., the group gathered last winter at Park View Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg for a weekend to begin the planning process. The work was completed individually and in small groups through the spring and summer months with Shirley Yoder Brubaker of the Park View congregation as local team coordinator.

"The Office of Congregational Life has coordinated the development of worship resources for Advent and for Lent, but this was the first time to develop worship resources for the Easter to Pentecost church season," noted Brian Martin Burkholder, EMU campus pastor and a group member.

Other EMU employees on the planning team were Jill K. Landis, associate director of church partnerships at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, and Kevin Clark, part-time instructor at the seminary.

Other committee members included Kris Shank Zehr, Edie Bontrager, Gloria Diener and Lucinda Swartzendruber, all from the Harrisonburg area.