What to expect

You're invited to our community-wide candlelight Christmas service on Sunday December 6th at 4:15pm! Whatever your background, whatever you believe, we would love to kick off the Christmas season with you.

Since we love getting to know people who have never been (or who are not currently) connected to a church, we’ll capture the traditional hallmarks of the holiday season while also making the service very relatable. Kids are welcome and we'll have special activity pages for them as they join adults in the service.

During the service, we'll sing classic carols together, and you'll hear passages read from the Bible that relate to the celebration of Christmas. Together, we’ll consider how the birth of Jesus could help us to live thoughtfully and intentionally in a fast-paced world. We'll think about what this looks like in Silicon Valley today, and offer a few moments for quiet reflection before concluding with our favorite tradition: passing candlelight from person to person as we sing "Silent Night" together. Each person will see how their light contributes to overcome the darkness, and to bringing joy and hope to a weary world.

Then we'll cross our courtyard from the sanctuary into our festively-decorated hall, where we’ll have a community meal from our favorite local food truck, Zaida’s Kitchen. Zaida’s serves authentic Mexican Oaxacan cuisine, is 100% gluten-free, and makes from-scratch non-GMO corn tortillas.

We’ll have hot cocoa bars abounding, where everyone can make their own cups of hot cocoa and decorate cookies with their neighbors. If you want to check out our free coworking space while you’re here, open most Fridays, do that! Stay and hang. The service will end before 5:30pm but the community meal, cookie-decorating, and cocoa-drinking are open-ended. Stay as long as you want, and leave whenever you’re ready.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

Everything is our treat! We believe in celebrating with our community and being generous neighbors.

WHO WILL BE THERE?

You’ll meet other people who live locally, from San Jose to Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Saratoga, Campbell, Los Altos, Los Gatos, and other nearby towns. You might even meet a next-door neighbor! (That’s happened before!) We’re a new church, so you’ll probably meet the small team starting this church together, as well as folks who come to help out regularly, and most of all, you’ll meet people who are coming for the first or second time. If you’re thinking about coming for the first time, you’ll be in good company!

WHERE TO PARK

We’re on the corner of Bollinger & Miller, and have parking lots on both wings, one off each street. The Bollinger parking lot connects to the Miller lot with a one-way driveway as well. We’ll have friendly folks in the parking lot ready to point the way. In the unlikely event that both parking lots fill up, there’s also free street parking on Miller. And you can also park at Hyde Middle School, which is just next door. So many options, all of them free! There are also a couple buses that stop within eyeshot of the campus.

WHAT TO WEAR

Anything goes. We want you to feel comfortable, so whatever you personally would wear to a simple holiday gathering or to meet up with some friends is perfect! Most importantly, we want you to come as you are. You’ll probably see a lot of people wearing Christmas colors, so that’s fun if you want to join in, but no pressure. It’s more important to us that you join us than what you’re wearing when you’re here!

Let the good times roll…and be dusted in sugar!

Reach out to us with any questions you have at hello@wvneighborhoodchurch.org. Going anywhere for the first time can be really challenging. Going to a church for the first time can be especially intimidating. We’d love to help make it easier.