Members of the New Hope Baptist Church Children’s Choir, directed by Karla Hicks, perform at the Mountain View Winter Festival on Dec. 16, 2018.

A neighborhood volunteer serves popcorn at the Mountain View Winter Festival at Mountain View Elementary School.

Sledding at Mountain View Elementary School during the Mountain View Winter Festival.

Jon Nauman, owner of the Horse-Drawn Carriage Co., leads hay rides for families at the Mountain View Winter Festival.

On an overcast afternoon in mid-December, a horse-drawn wagon made slow laps through the snowy streets of Mountain View. 

Families waiting to take a ride stood in line along McPhee Avenue. In the parking lot of Mountain View Elementary School, members of the New Hope Baptist Church Children’s Choir sang carols while more people gathered around a burn barrel, pet sled dogs and reindeer, took photos with Santa Claus atop a decorated fire truck, snacked on warm popcorn and swarmed the school sledding hill.

This was the inaugural Mountain View Winter Festival, hosted by Mountain View Hope Covenant Church.

Ashlea Simpson was part of the crowd of kids and parents in the school parking lot that day. It was a good feeling, she said. 

“It’s cool to see the community come together like this,” Simpson said. 

Chris Peake, from the Reindeer Farm in Palmer, soothes Prancer during the Mountain View Winter Festival on Dec. 16, 2018. “They trust you, just like babies do, so you have to earn their trust,” Peake said of the reindeer.

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This story originally appeared in the Winter 2018-19 issue of the Mountain View Post magazine.