Bala’s Trek to Bethlehem, an immersive real-life nativity featuring actors and live farm animals, is coming up on Dec. 7.
The Trek to Bethlehem is free to attend and begins at the Bala Community Centre at 6 p.m. It’s a guided 45-minute walk around the block, so attendees should be sure to dress for the weather. Event chair Patricia Gidley said it was wonderful to bring the trek back last year after a three-year hiatus caused by the pandemic. They had to scramble to find new people to assist with the event, but it was worth it to restore such a beloved local tradition. The history of the trek stretches back to 1993, and Gidley has been there to see it all.
“It’s such a beautiful story that it’s a bit of a thrill to be able to retell it every year, and to have people that want to come back and rehear the story,” she said. “We have [locals] that are now married, but they started coming as teenagers… they’ve got young ones of their own now and still want them to hear the Christmas story.”
For the first trek, Gidley and her fellow organizers started planning the summer before. They focused on making costumes and putting together simple sets. Over the years, their set pieces went from tents and other temporary items to wooden props and added lighting.
The trek originally happened on main street before moving to a private property and eventually ending up at the community centre. It’s been at the same location for all but five years, and it’s the perfect place to host a trek, Gidley said. It offers a convenient loop with two buildings for the gathering place and the Jerusalem Inn.
The gathering place is at the community centre where the walk begins. Small groups are led by guides through the different areas of “Bethlehem” before ending up at the Jerusalem Inn, based in the arena.
“We start at 6, but we go until all the people that have come have had a turn,” Gidley said. “We don’t turn anybody away, so everybody gets a turn. Because a lot of people come at the same time, it can be a bit of a wait, but we do have musical entertainment inside the gathering place.”
The event is a Muskoka favourite and brings in crowds from the rest of the province. While some walking nativities exist, most of them rely on prerecorded tracks or videos. Given the unique nature of the live scenes, Bala draws a consistent crowd of new faces at Christmas, and many trek visitors return from year to year as well.
Organizers are looking for volunteers, especially those with drills, to help put up sets starting at 10 a.m. on Dec 5 and 6. They’re also looking for day-of volunteers like guides. It requires learning a script and walking a fair distance, but guides are a big part of what makes the experience so personal.
“We need soldiers still, and we need some guides,” Gidley said. “It’s a script that they have to learn, and we do memorize it. It is a commitment to be a guide, but it is really the most rewarding job of the whole trek.”
The goal of the trek is to enjoy the journey that Mary and Joseph took and share in the excitement of baby Jesus at the end, Gidley said. It’s a story of joy and celebration, so it’s fulfilling to share it with so many people every year. The only real limitation is being able to walk the trek itself, though people have pushed wheelchairs through it before.
Before the pandemic, a lot of the people involved in the event had been around since the beginning. After several reached 80 and over, they retired and left a space for new organizers to join. Many new people have come on board, and Gidley hopes to see that trend hold steady.
“We’ve had to bring in some new people, and I think that that will continue,” she said. “We’ll get new people that either move to the area or hear the story that want to be a part of it, because it is a lot of fun to do it, and it is a very rewarding evening when it’s over. We hope that more will join us and that it keeps on going for many years.”
Brad Burgess is the event treasurer and a longtime guide for the trek. This year, he’s also responsible for securing the animals. While they’ve had a few hiccups with the donkey, the sheep, cattle and other animals are ready to go for the event. The actors and animals bring the story to life, and he’s glad to witness it as a guide.
“It’s probably the most rewarding activity or position in the entire trek,” he said. “There are 100-odd people that are in various roles, but I think where you get the greatest personal satisfaction and the most wonderful comments is being a guide and having that opportunity to interact with groups of 15 to 20 people and listen to the oohs and aahs.”
It’s special to see the impact the trek has on its visitors. The comments they receive are overwhelmingly positive with most people saying it’s like nothing they’ve ever seen before. Burgess has had guests from as far away as Sudbury, Stratford and Hamilton, and their gratitude has a particular sincerity given the hours of driving it took to get there.
The guides and the other actors work hard to stay in character throughout the trek, but it can be hard to convince people to forget about the conveniences of modern day and stay in the story. Children often want to buy things at the market they pass through, so the guides remind them that they need all of their money to stay at the inn. Other comments are harder to address.
“We try to stay not only in costume but keep our wording in the times of 2000 years ago,” Burgess said. “But when one of the young children one day lost his scroll for the tax tent, and the tax collector was demanding that he’d present one, he just looked around at his mum and dad and shook his head and looked back and said, ‘I emailed it.’”
Situations like that keep Burgess and his fellow guides on their toes, but they enjoy all the wonderful comments kids come up with. After bringing their guests through the trek, they get to reward everyone with hot chocolate and cookies, a fitting end to a heartwarming journey.
Burgess said despite all the different stories people hear and watch during the holidays, the story of the original Christmas isn’t often told from beginning to end. The trek is a perfect reminder of the meaning behind Christmas, so it’s great to see people coming out in large numbers to start their holiday season off with that reminder.
“Christmas has become so commercialized that if you ask a lot of people, they’re really not sure what Christmas is other than Santa Claus and trees and presents,” he said. “This really brings back the true meaning of what Christmas is.”
Visit the Bala Community Centre, located at 1008 Maple Avenue, on Dec. 7 to experience the trek. For updates on Bala’s Trek to Bethlehem, follow the event’s Facebook page.