Thank you to everyone who was involved with our eighth annual Christmas at the Shafter Depot Museum. We are so grateful to everyone who decorated, entered a tree, volunteered, made cookies, visited, and/or voted! November 29th the Shafter Historical Society participated in Shafter’s Christmas Parade with a float of a tractor pulling a trailer with a Christmas tree advertising our Christmas display at the Depot. The tractor and trailer were provided and driven by our Curator Stan Wilson. Stan along with other board members Helen Gaede, Dolly Hei, and Marti Maynard decorated the float and the tree lovely ladies rode on the trailer during the parade.

December 10th was a special day. Brian Nelson dressed up as our Santa Claus and cheerily greeted all of our visitors, listened to their Christmas wishes, and posed for photos. The Shafter Brass Band was also on hand that day to serenade our guests with beautiful and festive Christmas carols on the front porch.

 

 

 

Dwayne Armstrong with the help of Helen Gaede and Don Epp hung Christmas lights on the Windmill and made it sparkle for the season.

 

 

 

 

 

December 24th John Maynard tuned the parlor piano and then sang and played carols for our Christmas Eve visitors. Thank you John for playing and keeping our piano in working order!

 

 

 

Many visitors this season said voting for just one Christmas tree entry was a tough decision this year. Here are the results of your votes for our theme Christmas Across America.

First place was awarded to the Shafter Church of the Nazarene. Their tree was dedicated to the memory of co-designer Beckie Epp who helped to plan the ideas for this entry. The tree was decorated with a garland of model train tracks woven together with red ribbons. Model train cars, ornaments of official railroad emblems and cards of all 50 states, and tickets completed the Railways Across America theme.

 

 

Second place went to the Shafter Youth Center. Their theme of Christmas Across the Shafter Youth Center was portrayed by photos of Christmas celebrations at the center throughout previous years. The children of the center made the frames for the photos and came down to the depot to decorate the tree for the season.

 

 

 

 

 

Third place was voted to the Shafter Kiddie Kollege for their Kiddie Kollege Express tree. Wrapping around the tree from the top to the bottom on a snowy garland were 46 handmade paper train cars that were decorated by each of the preschoolers.

 

 

The votes were extremely close for the trees this year as all of the entries were very well decorated and all of our trees deserve mention! The Shafter Woman’s Club decorated their tree with the theme a Shafter Country Christmas. A popcorn garland encircled ornaments that gave a homey country theme including a country house with a wide porch and a big red barn. There was also a “Shafter” train running around the base of the tree.

 

 

 

The Shafter Rotary Club picked the theme Traveling Across America and decorated their tree with many different vehicles, buses, planes, trains, motorcycles, and cars, etc. as well as banners of the Rotary organization. Beside the tree was a handmade covered wagon representing one of the first ways people traveled across America to get to their new homes and to go join family members who had traveled before them.

 

 

 

 

John Maynard Piano Service decorated their tree with miniature trains and twinkling lights that looked like stars above a scene depicting the theme Over the River and Through the Woods with the trail ending at a little house with Grandma and Grandpa figurines standing outside waiting for their company.