After 4 1/2 hours of “pretty intense” last-minute Christmas shopping in Water Tower Place, Nicolas Sesso, 29, took a break Saturday afternoon on a bench before hailing a cab back to his Lincoln Park home. The excursion was part of Sesso’s annual Christmas tradition: shopping on Christmas Eve, church on Christmas Day.
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“It is a bit inconsistent,” he said, laughing. “I do the church thing out of deference to my mom.”
On Saturday, the stretch of Michigan Avenue between Water Tower Place and Fourth Presbyterian Church was awash with churchgoers and last-minute shoppers.
Marjorie Boerema of Grand Rapids, Mich., and her family spent the day sightseeing and ice skating. Going to church on Christmas Eve is something she said her family does every year.
“Christmas is the birth of Christ, so it is good to be at church,” she said.
A capacity crowd filled Fourth Presbyterian. After seeing how packed the church was, Steve and Tammi Ozaistowicz of Holland, Mich., said they planned to come back for a later service in hopes of getting a seat.
Rev. Philip Blackwell of First United Methodist Church of Chicago, 77 W. Washington St., said Christmas Eve nighttime services at churches in the Loop generally aren’t so well attended.
“We usually have modest crowds,” Blackwell said. “The tendency with us being downtown is that most of our younger members go elsewhere for Christmas.”
Blackwell estimated that 90 percent of those at First United’s 7 and 11 p.m. services Saturday were people visiting Chicago for the weekend or those of different ethnic backgrounds or faiths who were looking for a typical American Christmas experience.
“There are probably as many strangers here tonight as there were at the manger,” Blackwell said with a chuckle.
Earlier at Water Tower Place, Peggy Wilson, 65, of Flint, Mich., took a break on a bench with her two granddaughters, Tia Haire, 7, and China Toins, 8. She said she normally goes to church on Christmas Eve, but because she is visiting her son in Chicago, she decided to do some window-shopping instead. She said she is saving her money for after-Christmas sales.
“Being at church is better anyway,” Wilson said. “Celebrating our Lord Jesus’ birth and remembering why he died and giving thanks to our God.”
About 6 p.m. Saturday, Pat and Natalie Moran of Secaucus, N.J., still were shopping and sightseeing inside Marshall Field’s downtown. But the couple had no worries about making mass.
“We go on Christmas Day,” Pat Moran said.
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