It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, even if snow isn’t in the immediate forecast.

Although winter weather hasn’t arrived, the holiday season can be seen and felt at the Christmas Tree Walk hosted by First Baptist Church at The Beacon in Waterloo, 718 North Market Street, this Friday through Monday.

This will be the second year of the event and it already promises to be bigger and better than last year.

The walk will be open to the public from 5 to 9 p.m. each night.

“We started last year. We started really late in the year, about September,” said Jan Dudley, one of the event organizers. “We just wanted to do something for Christmas in Waterloo. We came up with this. We had 30 tree decorators last year and more than 1,200 guests. It was three days. It was just a ‘rah-rah’ moment for everybody involved.”

This year, the event started gaining steam in the spring, when plans began. There will be more than 40 trees on display this year.

“We represent more than 4,000 people with these trees,” Dudley said. “Maybe two or three people are doing the decorating, but maybe the organization behind them represents 4-H. That’s 350 kids. Helping Strays, House of Neighborly Service, Human Support Services. If you add all those people up, half of Waterloo is involved hands-on or as part of an organization.”

Chuck Jinkerson, the co-chair of this year’s event, helped come up with the idea for the walk last year. Before The Beacon was open, there was a miniature version of the event held at First Baptist Church’s Sunday school classrooms a few years ago. Each classroom had a theme and was decorated.

Jinkerson and Dudley thought it could be made more large-scale using The Beacon.

Jinkerson was decorating the exterior of The Beacon on Monday.

“I’ll be putting trees outside,” Jinkerson said.

The outside decorations are to make the entire Beacon radiate Christmas.

“We get the 12-foot tree?” Jinkerson asked.

“We haven’t got it out yet, but Dave will be here to help you,” Dudley responded.

“It takes three guys to pick up one tree, it’s 12 foot,” Jinkerson said. “It was a gift from Helping Hand (thrift store).”

Part of the reason this event has gotten as large as it has so quickly is because of the community involvement.

“If I can tell you anything about Waterloo, this is the best thing about us,” Dudley said. “We do ‘community’ well. We really do.”

What’s also great about being in a small town are the connections people have with each other. That reunion-type atmosphere is why Dudley wanted to continue the walk this year.

“The thing that inspired me from last year, that we should do this again, is that I would see people go out the door — I was kind of the host,” Dudley said. “People would be coming into the door and go, ‘Ah! I haven’t seen you in forever.’

They’d stop and hug. Then someone would say, ‘let’s go get some coffee.’ They’d get on the phone and dial someone up.”

Another aspect that has made this event a success is that it is made for families. People can walk around The Beacon, looking at the different themed trees and rooms, in a family-friendly setting. One of the new additions this year will be a full-fledged marketplace based on Bethlehem.

“It will be a marketplace like you might have seen 2,000 years ago,” Dudley said. “There will be different types of activities — a lot of interactive things. It’s things for families to do. The whole event is to bring families together. It’s for grandkids and your parents to all wander and meander to be safe. You don’t have to worry about things of the world here. You’re in a cocoon, basically, for these four days.”

The trees will still be the main reason to visit The Beacon this weekend. Each one has its own theme.

“They theme them to a song, they got to choose their own song,” Dudley said. “Any of the Christmas songs from the ‘Redneck 12 Days of Christmas’ to ‘O Holy Night.’ We have the whole gambit. Frosty is coming. I saw a lot of white snowflakes, but I don’t know what Frosty is going to be. So, it’s just interesting to watch the thought process.”

The trees were just beginning to be put up and decorated on Monday when the Republic-Times visited The Beacon. Dudley said that by Thursday around noon, everything will be done. She said the decorators will be in and out from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day this week.

The event is free and open to the public, thanks in part to exhibitors finding or purchasing their own decorations for the trees. Parking is available at First Baptist Church, 320 Covington Drive. Handicapped parking is available at The Beacon.

For large group reservations, or more information, call Dudley at 618-340-2037.