• Heiners direct contributions to a family in need.

The Heiner Family’s Live Nativity Sleigh Ride is coming into it’s fifth year.

For the Tre and Olivia Heiner family it’s their way of giving back at Christmas.

Their gift started with one of the most difficult events that a young married couple could face, the accidental loss of their first child, eight-month-old Clyde late in the summer of 2020.

As they grieved they looked for a way to remember their child, while honoring the Savior.

The solution came at Christmas, the same year – a Live Nativity, complete with horse drawn sleighs based at the family farm in Bedford.

“Tre talked about doing a live nativity, when I was pregnant with Clyde,” Olivia explained.

They were cautious because their were already working hard maintaining a farm and an outfitting business. “That would be cool but that’s a lot of work,” she recalled thinking about it. “I don’t know if I’m ready for it”

However their life changed with the sudden loss of their child and feeling the outpouring of love, concern and giving from friends and neighbors.

“After Clyde passed, we were overwhelmed with how much the community supported us,” Olivia remembered. “Their prayers, the monitory donations — we had to do something to give back.”

That was 2020, and the Heiners, supported by family and friends, have been giving back every Christmas.

“It’s kind of felt natural,” Tre recalled of giving back with the nativity event. “We had an image in our head and the way we wanted it to go. It fell together easily with all the volunteers.”

For three hours on two nights just before Christmas the Heiners provide the Nativity Sleigh rides, 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 22 and Monday, Dec. 23.

In those two evenings they host 1,000 guests to experience the birth of Savior Jesus Christ with a Live Nativity at the family farm.

The 20-minute sleigh ride leaves the Heiner family barn, that was just renovated to accommodate a heated waiting area, complete with cookies and hot chocolate for their visitors.

Five horse driven sleighs take the visitors on timed rides where they travel out to the nativity scene and hear a child’s voice reciting the Christmas story from Luke 2. The route is lit with small fires.

The ride leaves an impression and can often change a person’s outlook.

Olivia acknowledged that lives can be changed by this sacred event at Christmas.

She received a note from a  visitor making this point. “My Mom hasn’t wanted anything to do with Christ for years and I brought her to the live nativity, and she cried the entire time. It reminded her of riding with her grandparents to feed. It took her back and then [she was touched] by the nativity.”

Contributions from visitors are directed to an anonymous family at Christmas. Still another way of giving back for the Heiner family.

“There’s a lot of Santa things, but once you lose someone, you understand what’s really important in life,” Olivia concluded. “Is it the presents, or is the people we love, is it Christ?”

She continued, “Just spending time together, creating important memories and being closer to our Savior — the Nativity checks those boxes.

While allowing people to experience their western heritage, the Nativity Sleigh Ride does more. “It brings families together, it reminds them of their Savior”