The Stuart Lions hosted their annual Community Christmas event on Saturday.

Things got started with the annual Kids Shop Free Program, which allows children to get Christmas gifts for their family members, by choosing from items donated to the Lions, and then wrapping the gifts before they take them home.

There was also a free will donation soup lunch, with proceeds going back to the Lions Club to fund Christmas events next year. Then Santa Claus made an appearance to hear from all the children. There were also Santa Train Rides. A tour of homes began in the early afternoon, where people were able to go see decorations that residents have up in their yards and homes. Stuart Lions member Kristy Lonsdale told Raccoon Valley Radio why the Lions do the Community Christmas event.

“Community Christmas is important for a lot of people. It’s a way to bring people together to enjoy visiting with each other. And most all communities have some sort of community Christmas. So for the Lions decided many years ago, “Let’s do this, and serve soup, have Kids Shop Free, have Santa come, do train rides, have drawings.” The drawings give the businesses a chance to give something back to the residents as a gift at Christmas time. And it’s just a fun way of getting together to kind of kick off the holiday season and to visit and see everybody. And the Lion’s motto is, we serve to give back to people. So what better way to do it than have a Community Christmas Celebration.”

For the second year, there were horse drawn carriage rides. TAGA Shires was booked to give the rides. While waiting for a carriage ride, there was lemonade, popcorn, coffee, hot chocolate and pizza furnished by The Stuart Scoop for people to enjoy.

 

Photo provided by Brittany Cullen.