Traditionally TOZ celebrates the holidays with a myriad of wonderful events including a live Christmas Concert. We spend the fall and winter months planning and rehearsing songs and dances to perform for our friends and family. Everyone is able to demonstrate their unique gifts in the most festive ways. After the performance we have snacks, a gift exchange and great times connecting to all members of the TOZ community. On Christmas Eve, our wonderful board comes in to cook us all a pancake breakfast before we leave in the afternoon to spend the holiday season with our families.
This year, of course, looked quite different. All of us at TOZ have been diligent with following the safe six+1 Covid-19 guidelines, so we had to find new ways to celebrate our favourite season. We continued to kick-off the season with decorating every corner of the building and doing Christmas themed programs as we had always done in the past. We decided to go digital with our Christmas pageant this year by making an extra special three part Christmas video. We filmed each segment individually and in small groups, then our wonderful movie maker Karla worked her magic and created our first ever digital Christmas concert!
We were so happy with how the video turned out and thrilled that we will be able to keep the videos to watch in the years to come. While it was fun to get creative this year, we do look forward to when we can gather together and celebrate in our tried and true ways. Until then, we will continue to find innovative ways to celebrate the seasons safely.