RHYTHMS | PRAYER, PRACTICE, PLACE
Vol 3. Issue 26
Friends,
This is our final issue for 2025 and an invitation to joy and celebration.
It includes a Prayer for Joy, the whimsical Practice of a Drive-By Party from our friends Alli and Chris Horst, and a Frozen Lake as a wonderfully wintery sacred Place.
Our hope is these simple rhythms offer both creativity and courage for loving your neighbors and neighborhood throughout the Christmas season.
All blessings.
Jared Mackey
PRAYER | JOY
By Katie Lukashow
Jesus,
You walked among us—
with sorrow in one hand
and joy in the other.
You received each day as it came
full of grief, full of grace.
We give thanks for the signs of joy
that show up not only in celebration,
but in the endurance of ordinary days:
the child who dances,
the neighbor who waves,
the meal that holds more than food.
Teach us to welcome joy as it comes—
an unexpected guest,
unpolished, unplanned,
yet always worth letting in.
Not earned, not reserved,
but given,
a quiet sign You are near,
and we are not alone.
When joy feels far away—
when sorrow lingers too long,
when waiting is too heavy,
help us remember:
joy and grief abide side by side,
both held in Your holy hands.
May we be a people of full-bodied joy—
not hidden in our heads,
but rising in our voices,
moving through our limbs,
shared at our tables,
carried through the door,
spilling out into our neighborhoods like festival wine.
May our joy draw others in,
Let it remind us
We belong to one another
and to You.
You are the God who rejoices over us with singing.
Let us be a people who sing back—
not because all is well,
but because You are with us.
Let joy be how we pray.
Let joy be how we live.
Amen.
Katie Lukashow is the Creative Director for Sacred Place. She graduated this semester from Western Seminary with a Masters of Global Leadership and works with both Kairos Partnerships and CultureCraft to advance organizational operations. Katie is currently living in New Mexico with her husband and their two Iraqi rescue dogs.
PRACTICE | DRIVE-BY PARTY
By Chris & Allie Horst
Practice
Pick a night. Schedule a drive-by Christmas Light party for weary friends and neighbors.
Create a map and playlist. Share your favorite lights and songs with maps and links
Prepare simple treats. Share hot chocolate, cookies, or whatever feels cozy.
“During the holiday season, sometimes the best thing you can give your friends and neighbors is…less.”
During the holiday season, sometimes the best thing you can give your friends and neighbors is…less. Not a Christmas party, not even a Christmas gathering—just a few hours to pause, wrapped in a bit of lightness and brightness. That’s how our tradition of “Christmas Cheer To-Go” began.
As kids, we both grew up loving Christmas lights. One night each Advent season, we would pile into our family minivans, crank up the Carole King, and check out the best light displays in town. Now, as parents, we love seeing our kids enjoy the beauty and ridiculousness adorning homes and neighborhoods for one month each year.
Our personal taste in Christmas lights is quite diverse. We appreciate the elegant tree-lined estates in Cherry Hills Village and marvel at the substantial investment our neighbors make each year to bring beauty to their homes and share it with us. We love the light displays synchronized to music. And we even delight in the yards where the tackiest of holiday inflatables cover every square inch and defy explanation (is that Santa riding a fire-breathing dragon?).
The holiday tradition of Christmas lights began in Germany in the 1700s. Despite the fire risk, German families adorned their evergreens with actual candles (speaking of substantial investments!) each Christmas to symbolize the arrival of Jesus as the light of the world. For centuries, candles and lights have flickered in our homes and in Christmas Eve services. The intention of this tradition is to help us pause and reflect on the Light of Christ bursting into the darkness.
For us, our most common darkness in Advent has been to not pause. With four kids and an absolute slew of performances, work parties, the inevitable bout with the flu, and mostly wonderful gatherings of friends and family, we find ourselves hurried and spent. At times, we have reached Christmas Day on fumes. We love this season. And we really need a night off.
That need—and the knowledge that many of our neighbors feel the same—sparked a simple idea. We started hosting a non-party for friends who need a night in their pajamas with their people.
The practice is quite simple: We supply cookies, pretzels, and hot chocolate. We share a link to a playlist with hours of our favorite Christmas songs and a map to some of our favorite light displays in nearby neighborhoods. Our kids deliver the goods to car windows. Neighbors and friends wave, drive off, and disappear to enjoy the lights. It’s small. It’s simple. And it’s become one of our favorite ways of loving our neighbors.
It’s not an evening everyone needs, but we know some weary friends will. This season, you may find yourself needing a drive-by party. We would love to (very briefly!) see you.
Chris & Alli Horst spend their life outside of work chasing their four kids down the ski slopes, reading, hiking, and frequenting their neighborhood Trader Joes. Alli helps leaders make great hires as the CEO of Matchstick and Chris co-leads a precision metal fabrication business.
If you live in South Denver and want to experience our drive-by party, please come! Christmas Cheer To-Go is Wednesday, December 17 from 5:30pm to 8:00pm. Please RSVP so we can ensure we have enough hot chocolate.
PLACE | FROZEN LAKE
By Jared Mackey
“It’s so classic, romantic. It’s how it used to be, the real deal.”
A frozen lake is a sacred place. Evergreen Lake was created with the construction of the Evergreen Dam between 1925 and 1927. Originally created to provide the utilitarian role of a water source for the town residents and fire protection, it now serves as a symbol of the heart of the community. The 40-acre lake is encircled by picturesque mountain views that shift hues throughout each season of the year. In winter, the frozen lake becomes a magical winter place of play as the largest Zamboni-groomed outdoor ice-skating rink in North America.
There has been ice skating on the lake each winter since the dam was finished. An older Evergreen resident remembers the original warming hut had the smell of wet, wool socks and cigarette smoke. It was a simple log cabin that is now used for boat rental in the summer. The Evergreen Lake House now has a giant stone fireplace and is large enough for the thousands of visitors who come each day. When frozen, Evergreen Lake has over 10 acres of groomed ice skating with 11 pond hockey rinks and an enormous public rink.
Daniel Coffey’s first memories are playing hockey on the frozen lake while in Middle School. He recalled spending the entire day skating in the warmth of the sun, enjoying the brilliant golden hour of sunset, to ending the day in the freezing cold of darkness under the lights high above the rinks. “It’s such a joyful and playful feeling to glide over the lake with the wind in your face,” he shares. “And the joy of spraying friends with ice in their face with a hockey stop!” he adds with a mischievous grin. Daniel sells the unique experience without an ounce of effort. “With the backdrop of the Rocky Mountain, why would you go skate anywhere else?”
In the past, the ice-skating season began in early December; now, with warmer winter weather, it does not open until almost January. The minimum ice thickness is 16 inches for the Zamboni to drive over the ice to groom it. Heart Cameron was the Zamboni driver for Evergreen Lake for 22 years. “It’s as real as ice skating gets,” Cameron says. “It’s so classic, romantic. It’s how it used to be, the real deal.” Cameron retired in 2023. In front of the Evergreen Lake House is a tree planted by Cameron, and each year it is lit to begin the holiday season. There is a plaque to honor Heart Cameron next to the tree. It reads, “As the tree planted by Heart grows and flourishes at Evergreen Lake, so, too, have our parks and open spaces flourished under his watchful guidance and devoted actions.”
There is something mystical about ice-skating on a deep and vast body of frozen water. The open sky and outdoor air are embodied reminders of the winter season and placeness of play. For 100 years, people have come every winter to experience the magic of ice skating on Evergreen Lake. A frozen lake is a sacred place.
Thank you to Daniel Cofffey for his contribution to this article and to Heart Cameron for his years of service and care for the Evergreen community.
RESOURCES | ADVENT
SEASONS | RESOURCES
There are Advent rhythms, recommended reading, and resources available at sacredplace.co/advent to encourage your love for your neighbors and neighborhood in this season.
More rhythms to root your faith in place.
Sacred Place provides a beautiful bi-weekly publication to share the rhythms of a Prayer, Practice, and Place as simple ways to help cultivate love for our neighbors and neighborhoods.
