Ashland joins family of religious displays in North Central Ohio (SLIDESHOW)

ASHLAND — What would you do with one hundred thousand dollars? One city mayor was beside himself when a local businessman called him one morning to tell him he would be delivering a one hundred-thousand dollar check to city hall. The donor wanted the funds to be used to celebrate the birth of Jesus and to make it a meaningful Christmas for downtown Ashland. And meaningful it was.

Ashland Mayor Matt Miller unveiled the anonymous donors’ names at a December 2nd festival parade which tallied a total of seventy groups parading floats from Ashland University down through Main Street.

The owners of Grandpa’s Cheese Barn donated a nativity scene located at Ashland’s Bicentennial Park to add to the Christmas spirit. It is believed to be the Ashland’s first religious display on public property. Other decorations were used throughout the downtown.

The funds given by Dick and Ronda Poorbaugh bought a twelve-foot wreath, an ornament sculpture, fireworks, and a twenty-two piece Nativity scene. Mayor Miller said the funds will also go toward next year’s decorations and festivities for the city. 

“The downtown decorations are amazing. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people say they are surprised by the size of our Christmas celebration. I believe our downtown Christmas rivals the celebrations found in large metropolitan cities,” Miller said. “The Poorbaugh’s have also set aside monies so that next year we can add several more major features that we couldn’t pull off in time for tonight,”

The Ashland nativity scene joins a number of community holiday displays on public property including in: Bellville, Crestline, Lexington, Loudonville, Mansfield, Mount Gilead, Ontario, Shelby, and Shiloh. The Malabar State Park in Lucas also has a creche. Several live nativity scenes were also held throughout Ashland County and the North Central Ohio region.

On December 23rd, The Village of Savannah held their annual community Christmas program at the Community Baseball Fields. The program, entitled “The Real Meaning of Christmas,” told the Bible’s account of Christmas and was coordinated by several area churches.

The program included a live outdoor nativity scene with a combination of animals, Scripture reading, candlelight and several songs performed by the Crestview High School show choir.

In Crawford County, Crestline residents organized a community event on December 26th to bring a night of hope and healing to area residents this holiday season.

The celebration took place at the Village Gazebo on Seltzer Street, and began with a short prayer vigil and included Christmas caroling and a live nativity scene next to the Gazebo.

Christmas is a longstanding tradition in North Central Ohio bringing the community together to celebrate the heritage of our Judeo-Christian culture. These customs do not appear to be going anywhere soon.

Related articles:

The Bottom Line:

The Bible says in Luke Chapter 2, “When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the LORD has told us about.”