Last weekend saw over 2,000 Moose Javians make their way to Hillcrest Apostolic Church's drive-thru nativity, over the course of three evenings.

Hillcrest's Community Advocate Daycee Richardson says they wanted to create an event that could still run even if restrictions kept changing. The response was bigger than they could have anticipated.

"On Friday night they were down Thatcher Drive all the way to 9th Ave NW, and Saturday night was similar. We counted 975 vehicles in total come through our parking lot. We were very pleased by that and it really seemed to have met a need this Christmas."

The event required a team of over 130 volunteers though the group never actually gathered together in one place.

"It was a very unique team situation since we could never rally everyone together," remarks Richardson. "We had small teams working on the project as they could with other people on home working on the technical requirements. There were lots of families that volunteered together and could work in clumps."

As vehicles made their way around the parking lot, they could access a narration of the first Christmas story on their phones.

"We did it in four different languages: English, French, Spanish, and Arabic. We had wonderful voice actors who read the story and translators who made sure the script made sense. As people drive around the exterior of the building they could see that story playing out. In some places, it was actors in costumes or still scenes with video projections. The final scene, which was definitely a favourite, was the scene with Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus in the stable with goats and a donkey."

The playlist will remain available to listen to for the rest of December on the church's website.

Even though the event was free to attend, many folks donated anyway, raising over $2,500 for Joe's Place. Richardson says it helped spread a message of hope in what has been a tough year.