Christmas in the Park delights attendees

Above, this adorable rosy-cheeked trio of sisters look pretty happy to be on Santa?s lap during the Christmas in the Park event. McMinnville Junior Auxiliary?s Pam Cantrell took almost 200 photos of children and Santa in the Heritage Alliance Museum. They are, from left, Alaura, Eliese and Celeste Bivens.

McMinnville?s 21st annual Christmas in the Park rang in the Christmas season as a large crowd braved the chilly winter weather and gathered downtown to enjoy all the programs, performances and displays all up and down Main St. Those attending also got to visit many of the Main Street shops who kept their doors open and offered treats and holiday cheer to the crowds.

The event was presented by the Junior Auxiliary of McMinnville, and the organization?s public relations chair, Pam Cantrell, said the group was thrilled with the community?s reaction this year.

?It was awesome,? Cantrell said. ?It was the best we?ve ever had. We had so many positive comments.?

Cantrell was in charge of the Santa photos at the Heritage Alliance Museum, and said she kept busy all night.

?I took over 200 pictures of the kids and Santa,? Cantrell said. ?And I took two pictures of dogs,? she added with a grin.

Natalie Miller was Christmas in the Park chairperson, and Mendi Wrather was co-chair, and Miller says the event was a great success and well worth all the hard work from everyone involved.

?I think it went great,? Miller said. ?We were so excited. Everything went perfect.?

Miller said it would be hard to estimate the size of the crowd, but she did have some indicators.

?We gave out almost 1,000 cups of cider,? she said. ?The lines at the shops were so long and it got so late that they finally they had to close up shop. They just had a constant line outside their doors all night.?

The reaction of the Main Street shops was uniformly positive, Miller said.

?They said it was bigger than they expected and they gave away everything they had planned for. They were all very pleased.?

Miller said the downtown businesses were a big part of this years Christmas in the Park.

?It could not have been as big an event as it was without the merchants staying open and without their participation,? Miller said.