Faeths closing the Barn door

HEARTBROKEN

I’m just heartbroken that we cannot provide this anymore for the community. Thank you to everybody for coming for so long and making this event what it was.”

Heather Faeth, Founder

LEE COUNTY – After nearly a quarter century, the beloved Christmas at the Barn services are coming to an end. Heather Faeth and their family have hosted the event for 23 years, but circumstances beyond their control have forced them to close the service.
“It’s extremely hard. We’ve done it for 23 years and I don’t know what else to do with Christmas,” Faeth said.
“My husband and I, along with a group of wonderful volunteers and sponsors, have put on this event. But this year, because of circumstances beyond our control and life changes, we are no longer able to offer this event. I just wanted to get the word out that Christmas Eve at the barn will not be happening this year.”
The event, held on private property, has become a cherished tradition for many families. Faeth said because of the event being held on private property, it would be difficult to hand off the much-anticipated holiday barn service to another family or group.
“Honestly, I don’t know that my husband would want to turn it over to somebody else,” she said.
While the possibility of rekindling the event exists, Faeth doesn’t see it happening in the foreseeable future. She said it is not an issue of funding, and if that were the case, they would attack that and continue the service.
“Our funding has sometimes been spotty, but we have wonderful sponsors and support. If it was just a funding issue, we would attack it from that standpoint and ask for more sponsorships and donations. We’ve had problems in the past with funding and our audience always stepped up. But unfortunately, that’s not what we’re dealing with here,” she said.
Faeth was emotional in talking about ending the services, but made a point to thank those who have helped keep the service running for a quarter century.
“I want to thank all of our wonderful volunteers who have helped throughout the years. We have people who drive in from other states to help us annually, religiously, to put this event on. And I want to thank our sponsors for everything they have done. All of them mean the world to us. Especially, I want to thank all the people who have attended over the years. They are the people who made the event what it is and made us popular. It became a family tradition for so many families,” she said.
 “I’m just heartbroken that we cannot provide this anymore for the community. Thank you to everybody for coming for so long and making this event what it was.”
The barn could accommodate about 250 people per service, with most years offering four services for roughly 1,000 people annually. Over the years, attendance has sometimes exceeded capacity, which adds to a range of 20,000 to 25,000 people attending in total.
Even during the pandemic, the event persevered.
“We did COVID protocols and were actually going to cancel, but we put it out to the people and had an overwhelming response. People were saying, ‘Please, everything else has been cancelled, the whole world is shut down, please don’t shut this down on us.’ Since it’s technically an outside event in an unheated barn, we did distancing and cut down the number of services, and we had record attendance, which was beautiful that year,” Faeth said.