Handmaking ornaments at Hunt

Residents with the holiday spirit were already milling about the town Green well ahead of the official starting time of 4:40 p.m. for the lighting of the town’s tree and the singing of carols and holiday songs Saturday, Dec. 2.

Candles were distributed and lit, relative newcomers mingled with old-timers, and children dashed about according to their own logic.

The revelers sang a mix of traditional carols and popular songs, led by Rachel Gall on violin and John Stey on guitar.

Once darkness settled in and the tree was lit, a Falls Village Volunteer Fire Department fire engine, suitably decorated, motored slowly down Railroad Street to the corner of Main Street by the Green.

This was the moment the youngsters had been waiting for.

Santa Claus — the genuine article, not some department store impostor — clambered down from the cab and made his way into the crowd.

The children looked on in awe, seemingly unable to speak.

Until a young voice piped up.

“Hi, Santa Claus!”

“Ho ho ho,” replied Santa.

The ice now broken, the children swarmed the man in the red suit.

Earlier in the day, children gathered at the David M. Hunt Library worked on handmade ornaments, some of which made it to the town tree.