By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
Ortonville — Santa Claus is coming to Ortonville.
On Dec. 3, starting at 1 p.m., downtown Ortonville will be home to Christmas in the Village once more. The parade starts at 1 p.m., starting on Ball Street to Church Street and through Mill and South Streets. Afterwards, Santa and Mrs. Claus will go from the parade to Old Town Hall for visits until 4 p.m. There will also be carriage rides, tractor hay rides, crafts, caroling and more.
The grand marshal of this year’s parade is Angela Harrell of Brandon Family Dental.
“I’m trying to make a point to make the grand marshal someone who made a difference to parks and rec,” said Brandon Parks and Recreation Director Fred Waybrant. “Angela has made a huge difference through her outreach to children through sponsorships. She sponsors mainly soccer, both fall and spring.”
Individuals and organizations interested in marching in the parade may register at brandontownship.us. Waybrant asks that anyone on floats not throw candy from the floats, and instead have walkers pass out candy to keep kids safe and deter them from running out into the parade traffic.
In addition to the parade, the Ortonville DDA will have Santa and Mrs. Claus at Old Town Hall, photo ops throughout downtown, and will have a schedule of events on the Downtown Ortonville Facebook page.
“The best thing about this is you have the businesses and organizations working together for the event,” said Matt Jenkins, DDA Director. “It’s awesome that so many different entities have a piece of this and it all comes together.”
Other events in downtown include the Eastern Stars Cookie Walk in the Masonic Hall, the kids craft zone, the craft, bake and treasure sale at the Edna Burton Senior Center and library programs in the morning.
Also, on Dec. 2, the DDA sponsors the tree lighting and caroling at Mill and South Streets at 6 p.m., followed by a family movie night, sponsored by Brandon Parks and Rec, at Old Town Hall. The movie will be Soul, and begins at 7:30 p.m.