If you walked down the street down town Italy, Saturday morning, you would have seen this little town bustling with activities and fun. The street was filled with vendors selling their wares such as jewelry, crosses, home baked goodies, Christmas ornaments, and lots more. You could just feel the excitement of Christmas in the air.

There was Santa sitting in his big chair with little ones on his lap telling him their Christmas wishes, cute elves were busy painting faces, another elf was entertaining children with balloon animals.

There even was a booth for creating Christmas ornaments. And we can’t forget Frosty the Snowman, he was there too. The children sat with Frosty and even held his hand.

Raffle tickets were handed out and lots of prizes were won. Some won a basket of candy with a one hundred dollar bill in bottom of all the candy, bicycles were handed out to many. Even though lots of fun was going on everywhere and prizes flowed freely the real meaning of Christmas was not lost on one particular four year old little boy. This little boy’s name is Nicolas Svehlak, he had the winning number on his raffle ticket and won a beautiful green bicycle. His mother, Kelly Svehlak, reminded her son that he had just received a bike for his birthday and would he like to give his bike back to Santa for some little boy or girl who did not have one? Well, you guessed it, he said yes. His bike was given to someone in the audience for their child and tears and happiness abounded. Way to go Nicolas! The true meaning of Christmas was displayed this day.

The festival ended with a wonderful parade with many, many floats and even Santa decided to join in on the parade.

Tina Haight and Clover Stiles did a fantastic job organizing Italy’s first annual Christmas festival and parade.

Thanks Tina and Clover, can’t wait for next year!