The Hometown Christmas event in downtown Forney on Saturday, December 1 saw residents enjoying themselves, while temperatures felt like those in April instead of December. A beautiful, breezy, sunny day made the event all the more inviting for the thousands of people who came out to take in the local festival.
The Hometown Christmas event in downtown Forney on Saturday, December 1 saw residents enjoying themselves, while temperatures felt like those in April instead of December. A beautiful, breezy, sunny day made the event all the more inviting for the thousands of people who came out to take in the local festival.
As always, the HTC was set up so that children attending the event could experience everything from pony rides, to ice skating on a synthetic skating rink, to zip lining, and jumping around in bounce houses. Judging by the smiles and laughs coming from the youngsters, the hour long wait in line to get a ride on the zip line was worth it. If those attractions were not enough, the children had the option of getting their faces painted, spinning wheels at booths to win prizes, or heading over to sit on Santa Claus' lap for a free photo souvenir.
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A pie eating contest was held, with contestants having to eat an entire cherry pie without using their hands. The pies were donated by Brookshire's and the winner was a young woman that beat out a host of men to take home the prize of a 37-inch flat screen Vizio HDTV. Those who did not participate in the pie eating contest had no problem filling their stomachs with food from a dozen food vendors serving everything from BBQ to Cajun food. The corn dogs were so popular that two vendors sold out.
There was an abundance of booths set up with Christmas crafts, quilts, hair bows, clothing, and other potentially great Christmas presents. Forney Wellness Medical & Dental had a booth set up that had doctors and staff members dressed up as Batman, Batwoman, and even Spiderman to entertain kids and adults.
The Blaine Mitchell Band took the stage from 1 - 3 p.m. and did such a great job that many audience members were saying that the bands music should be playing on the radio. Blaine Mitchell and his band are from Rockwall, and though they sing country music, they also brought some Elvis to the stage and threw in some classic Christmas songs as well. Forney was well served by having such a talented group performing at HTC.
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The most popular booth of the day was that of the Forney Lions Club, which once again sponsored an Angel Tree for less fortunate children from Forney. They had 199 angel tags at the start of the day and according to Lions Club member Don Orman, by 11:30 a.m. every single one of the angels had been adopted. Forney came through, once again showing the generous spirit that makes this community such a great place to live.
