Information and illustration provided by Rev. Brandon Vetter, Legacy UMC

Spending and Christmas seem to go together. January is a time when the reality of Christmas spending arrives in the credit card and bank statements. Members of Legacy United Methodist Church in Bismarck, ND are celebrating spending $55,000 this past Christmas. Legacy UMC raised $55,000 through the 2015 Christmas Eve offering.

The church has a long history of collecting an offering and giving it away to others each Christmas. Funds collected this year will be distributed as follows: $33,000 to Ruth Meier’s Hospitality House in Bismarck and $22,000 to the Watford City Church, a new Dakotas Conference church start in the Bakken.

This is the largest Christmas Eve offering ever for Legacy. Each year the members of Legacy are challenged to spend one-half of what they have budgeted for Christmas gifts on actually purchasing gifts, and give the other half to the Legacy Christmas Challenge.The illustration below provides a visual image of the history of Christmas giving at Legacy.