Freeburg student artists turn cemetery lane into Christmas wonderland
Light shone in the darkness along the scenic walkway between Holy Family Church and the parish cemetery in Freeburg.
Fifth- through eighth-grade art students at Holy Family School spent their second quarter turning discarded materials into colorfully creative displays for the Christmas Season.
“This was our first time doing this. It was a nice adventure,” said Mary Holterman, art teacher at Holy Family.
Students transformed wooden pallets, poultry wire, a door, several tires and sundry other cast-offs into Christmas trees, giant ornaments, a festive pickup truck, a U.S. flag, a Santa, a Grinch and a snowman village, complete with a melted snowman.
“He was made of recycled fabric from the quilting ladies,” Mrs. Holterman noted.
They transformed “pool noodles” into candy canes and plastic hangers into snowflakes.
“A contractor in town cut strips of wood, and we nailed them together and created a gift box with lights on it and wrapped it in netting,” said Mrs. Holterman.
Perhaps the most prominent work in the collection was the Nativity scene painted on the side of a barn door.
“He’s the reason for all the rest of this,” the teacher stated.
Third- and fourth-graders helped the junior high students install their artwork in the days leading up to the school’s Dec. 13 Shadow Nativity performance.
“People donated a lot of lights — even more than we could use this year,” said Mrs. Holterman.
She likes using LED lights because multiple strands can be strung together without blowing out any fuses.
The students rigged the lights to timers, which turned on all the lights shortly after 4 p.m. and left them on all night through Christmas.
They threw the switch for the first time after the Shadow Nativity, which was attended by school parents, grandparents and many other parishioners.
“The next morning, I went back out there to adjust some of the timers,” said Mrs. Holterman. “Before 6 a.m., people were driving through and enjoying it on their way to work.
“People would drive down the lane and you’d hear such positive feedback,” she said. “That’s what made it a bit more exciting. You could see that our efforts were paying off.”
Mrs. Holterman liked the idea of bringing light and activity to the often-quietest corner of the parish property.
“I have a son buried in the cemetery,” she said. “There are a lot of people down there who don’t get visitors.
“But when people come to see this, they go down the cemetery lane, and the people who are buried there get a lot of company.”
She noted that a cadre of parishioners led by Father William Debo, pastor of Holy Family Parish and of Sacred Heart Parish in Rich Fountain, set the pace for decorating with their magnificent work inside the church.
A beautiful outdoor Nativity scene also greets passers-by on nearby U.S. Highway 63.
Mrs. Holterman said her students started out lukewarm on the project but got more excited with each creative challenge they overcame.
“They did an amazing job, once they got the gist of it,” she said.
She hopes to have her students augment the collection of up-cycled artwork in time for Christmas 2024.
“We might start a tradition and be able to light both sides of the lane,” she said.
A video of the display can be found on the Holy Family School and Parish Facebook page.
