QUINCY — Quincy Valley Historical Society & Museum hosted Christmas activities all day Saturday, starting in the morning with the Christmas Market and wrapping up the day’s celebrations with the Living Nativity at night.

The Christmas Market was limited to just the Heritage Barn this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, with eight vendors spread out in the building. A number of virtual vendors took part in the market as well.

Harriet Weber is the director of operations with the Historical Society and Museum. She said the market couldn’t be what it was in 2019, but vendors were still happy with how they did.

She said even with the pandemic-related limits this year, several hundred people still came through the market Saturday morning and early afternoon.

“I think because there’s not a lot of other offerings, people really want something to go to,” Weber said. “They bought too. I think they were really aware of supporting local vendors and artisans, so that was really good.”

The Living Nativity kicked off around 5:30 p.m. Saturday as families followed a guide through exhibits. Patrons started by visiting the wise men before the shepherds, the town of Bethlehem and finally the Nativity scene. Guides carried a speaker that helped narrate before families ended their journey with a cup of hot cocoa.

About 50 volunteers made the event happen. Weber said they started planning this first-time event about a month ago and pulled it together quickly.

Faith Community Church helped bring the Bethlehem scene to life, while The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provided the Nativity scene. Rod Cool, an agriculture teacher and FFA adviser with Quincy High School, brought the animals together for the event, including a number of sheep, donkeys, lambs and goats.

Mandy Ottley, with Quincy Valley Allied Arts, helped get the costumes with some other local churches and groups. Ottley said she borrowed most items and made a few things for the event.

Ottley said she drove costumes around to the all the participants and dropped them off to avoid meeting up because of COVID-19.

While the last few days leading up to Saturday night were hectic at times, Ottley said before the show on Saturday that she was “jazzed” to see everything.

“This is such a big undertaking for a small little community with very little time to prepare, but I’m very impressed with all of it,” Ottley said.

Rod Cool said Saturday’s event was a nice thing to help with, because, as an agriculture teacher it has been part of the job wherever he’s been to serve the community and “fill in the gaps.”

Having a few FFA students involved with the event and the animals was great, Cool said. Instilling that readiness to serve is something he said the FFA advisers strive to do. Seeing the FFA members over the weekend was nice, too, because it was the first time Cool had been able to see them since March.

“I’ve seen their pictures on Zoom, but seeing them in person has been really cool,” Cool said. “And they’re having a lot of fun getting in costume and helping out with this, too.”

Casey McCarthy can be reached via email at cmccarthy@columbiabasinherald.com.