by Noella Noelophile®
(Graphic courtesy of Christmas in the Park.)
Something scary is about to happen in San Jose.
It promises to be a good time, for a great nonprofit.
San Jose’s annual free community event, Christmas in the Park, are planning their first Halloween celebration, called “A Nightmare Before Christmas in the Park“, scheduled for Saturday, October 25th. This will be both a party and a fundraiser, to help them continue offering Christmas in the Park as a free event.
For over thirty years, Christmas in the Park has been delighting Bay Area residents with more than forty musical and animated exhibits. The lights, music and entertainment in San Jose’s downtown Plaza de Cesar Chavez have become a Bay Area tradition.
But, the truly “scary” part happened earlier this year–when several key event sponsors were unable to renew their support. In addition, some important grant funding ran out.
“Grant funding was a transitional grant from the city of San Jose as we (nonprofit 501c3 organization Christmas in the Park) took over the event,” explained Executive Director Jason Minsky. “It was a two-year grant–this is year three.”
Those developments left Christmas in the Park looking at the $600,000 price tag of creating their annual Christmas event, which runs from the day after Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. Now they had to come up with some new ways to fund their annual gift to the community.
Introducing: “A Nightmare Before Christmas in the Park”, which may become an annual event.
This is not only a Halloween costume party, with a dueling piano set, DJ, costume party food and adult beverages (so, 21 and over, please)–it’s also a look inside the preparations for Christmas in the Park. Expect to see some of the best of what makes Christmas in the Park an incredible display, along with a Halloween-styled good time.
“We are converting five of our displays into Halloween displays for the event,” Jason emailed. “The nonprofit starts moving in to Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park on Friday, October 31–also known as Halloween. The prep work and set up for the main (Christmas in the Park) event takes quite (an) effort…Some might call the weeks prior to setup a “nightmare” and that is where the party comes in.”
In addition to those displays and a haunted Halloween train, “Nightmare Before Christmas in the Park” takes visitors inside the nonprofit’s warehouse, where they store all their decor. “Not many get an inside look at all our stuff,” Jason added. “My warehouse manager doesn’t like me very much–hahaha.”
“Nightmare Before Christmas in the Park” takes place on Saturday, October 25th from 7 to 11 pm at Christmas in the Park’s warehouse, 1661 Senter Road near Phelan, in San Jose. Tickets are priced at $100 each, and are limited to 200. More information is available here.
Meanwhile, if you can’t attend the party but would like to help, here’s more information on volunteer opportunities. Interested in helping to sponsor Christmas in the Park this year? They’d love a phone call, at 1(408)297-XMAS (9627), or an e-mail at info@christmasinthepark.com.