Celebrate The SeasonAn Important Local Tradition

As the holidays approach, the excitement of the season is easy to see. From the decorations flooding your favorite stores to the nonstop Hallmark movies on your TV screen, every little thing begins to fill hearts with joy. Old Santee Canal Park and Santee Cooper are also geared up for the 14^th year of our annual tradition – Celebrate The Season.

It all began in 2010 when the folks at Santee Cooper thought it would be a wonderful idea to brighten up the already beautiful landscape of Old Santee Canal Park with some festive holiday décor. At the time, it was a relatively modest one-day event with the focal piece being the lighted arch – that is used for the entrance to the Holiday Lights Driving Tour today – and a few smaller displays. Piggly Wiggly donated some cookies for a cookie-decorating station for children. A craft station was set up and a local garden club decorated the Stony Landing House. 

Seeing the beautiful scene, a Santee Cooper executive at the time asked what could be done to expand on it and also how it could better serve the community. From there, Celebrate The Season turned into more than just a local tradition. With the help of sponsors, including presenting sponsor Berkeley Electric Cooperative, and ticket sales, Celebrate The Season has donated more than $1.3 million dollars to local charities.

One shining example of how the Holiday Lights Driving Tour has brightened the spirits of those in need is the incredible amount of donations given to the Giving Back to Berkeley County Fund of Coastal Community Foundation. This endowed fund awards grants every year to nonprofit organizations serving Berkeley County, the county in which Celebrate The Season takes place. Much like Santee Cooper’s mission of improving the quality of life for all South Carolinians, their purpose is to improve the quality of life in Berkeley County. 

Old Santee Canal Park Director Brad Sale presents the 2023 donation to Coastal Community Foundation Program Officer Nivia Collins.

“Since 2011, we’ve received a total of more than $665,000 from Santee Cooper’s Celebrate The Season,” said Coastal Community Foundation Program Officer Nivia Collins. “I want to emphasize that these contributions are significant.”  

Collins said Celebrate The Season is currently the most active donor to the fund, and these contributions have grown the fund by leaps and bounds. It continues to increase the amount they can grant to its nonprofit recipients while also continuing to grow the endowment. This funding helps nonprofits continue to serve Berkeley County residents.

Throughout the years, other festivities have run in tandem with the Holiday Lights Driving Tour. In the beginning, Old Santee Canal Park held festivals on the grounds, but after a few years, the Town of Moncks Corner worked with Santee Cooper to move them to their Regional Recreation Complex to help raise money for the Miracle Field. The new facility, known as the Home Telecom Miracle League Baseball Field, is an all-inclusive field that allows people with disabilities to play baseball, no matter what their skill level is. The Miracle Field is another shining example of how Celebrate The Season, its sponsors and its guests have made a lasting impact in the community.

Now that the field is up and running, the weekend festival, Holiday In The Park, is back at Old Santee Canal Park. 

“We were able to work out a way to make it financially stable so we can continue to donate to local charities,” said Old Santee Canal Park Director Brad Sale. “This is the third year we are holding it back here.”  

This year, Holiday In The Park is being held on Fridays and Saturdays from Dec. 13 to Dec. 21 from 6-9 p.m. The festival includes a carousel, live music performances, food and craft vendors, holiday cards decorated by local schools, s’mores pits, kids’ crafts and pictures with Santa – or the Grinch if visitors want to help his heart grow three sizes!

Celebrate The Season would not be possible without the generous donations from our annual sponsors who cover all the cost of running the event. All the gate proceeds go directly to charities. In addition to Santee Cooper, which organizes the event, this year we have five top sponsors – Berkeley Electric Cooperative, the presenting sponsor, Berkeley County Tourism Department, Home Telecom, Southard Brothers and Thompson Construction Group. With their generous donations, they each get to operate the gate one night, and the proceeds from top five nights of the year will be distributed to the charities of their choice. 

As the holidays approach, so many people are indeed excited for the days to come. But the gifts in the stores, holiday movies and brilliant decorations can sometimes cast a shadow on the true significance of the season – family, gratitude and hope. Celebrate The Season is a great local tradition, and much more. Throughout the years, it has helped bring smiles to both the people who visit and those whose holidays were made special by the generosity of people they’ll never even meet.