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Maryville Christian School has brought back its traditional Christmas fundraiser after a one-year break.

The school, located at 2525 Morganton Rd., will hold its Christmas Fantasy fundraiser at 5 p.m. Saturday. School officials refer to the fundraiser as ‘Blount County's Fantasy of Trees,' which is an allusion to the four-day Knoxville event that benefits Children's Hospital.

Visitors can expect live and silent auctions, drawings for decorated Christmas trees, crafts and games for children, photo opportunities and live entertainment.

Many past Christmas Fantasy attendees consider the event's piece de resistance to be a class tree decorated by their family members. Students, teachers and parents have diligently worked to create this year's best Christmas trees.

Students are currently selling raffle tickets for their class trees.

Maryville Christian School's students will provide the event's entertainment. The Young Children's Drama Club will perform nativity scenes, said Principal Jackie Klima, who oversees the middle and high school grades. Eighth-graders will perform scenes from Charles Dickens' “A Christmas Carol.”

The elementary school choir will perform for audience members while the fifth grade, middle school and high school orchestras will play selected works. The high school praise band will also perform.

More than 200 items valued at $15,000 have been donated toward this year's auction.

Two big ticket items are Walt Disney World passes and a three-day Pigeon Forge vacation.

Tickets for dinner and dessert are $12 for adults and $8 for children.

Past Christmas Fantasy events have raised about $20,000 for the school, Klima said. Officials try to earmark the money for technology. Maryville Christian School recently purchased six interactive whiteboards and built another computer lab, she said.

This year's fundraiser will be extremely important for the school, Klima said. “Our enrollment is strong, but not as strong as it used to be. We're down a little bit and didn't cut any programs last year. We want to offer a lot of options for our kids. This fundraiser will be vital to our continuing to offer our current programming.”