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By MEG HERNDON | Staff Writer

HELENA – Helena’s Christ Community Church has welcomed the community to join in on its annual Helena Holiday Scavenger Hunt this December.

The event, which originally began in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Christ Community Church created 12 wooden Christmas trees for Helena families to find in Helena. This year, those who wish to participate will be able to from Wednesday, Dec. 14-Thursday, Dec. 22. Each tree is painted to represent one of the 12 days of Christmas, and all clues can be found on the back of each tree.

“This will be the third year we are doing it,” said Caroline Dempsey Christ Community Church communications coordinator. “We have our own families who have really loved it. We are hoping to let people just have this as something fun and free for people in the community and there’s no fixed date and time (to participate).”

To wrap up the scavenger hunt, on Thursday, Dec. 22 from 2-4 p.m. the church will host a celebration with prizes, hot chocolate, a bounce house, photo booth and games.

Although, officially, the scavenger hunt will end on Dec. 22, the church will leave the trees up through Christmas Eve, so people can still participate on their own time if they wish to do.

Despite being a relatively new tradition, Dempsey said the community has been very receptive to the scavenger hunt each year.

“We have a lot of families with young children, and they’ve loved it,” Dempsey said. “But, some of our empty nesters and some of the older folks in our church participated. Especially the first year we did it, because not all of them felt comfortable coming in person to worship because of the Coronavirus, but they still felt connected to us but being able to do something. So, that was just a lot of fun to do. We hope for folks who maybe don’t feel comfortable going to church for whatever reason, this is something that they can do. That’s just fun or fun to do with their families.”

Full details for the scavenger hunt and the first clue can be found at ChristCommunity.net/12Days or on the church’s Facebook or Instagram pages.