BROWNSTOWN

The story of Christmas was portrayed by members of Driftwood Christian Church through a live Nativity at Sugar and Walnut streets.

Nearby inside the Jackson County History Center’s livery barn, strings of Christmas lights and the lights on Christmas trees illuminated the building, and carolers sang onstage while people walked around the Festival of Trees display to vote for their favorite.

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Downtown businesses were open late, and Brownstown Central High School groups were set up along Walnut Street providing warm drinks, games and treats.

Outside the Jackson County Courthouse, a line extended from the entrance to the sidewalk along Main Street as children were excited to see Santa Claus and share their wish list and get their picture taken with him.

To cap off the evening, middle and high school choir students left the inside of the courthouse to continue caroling after the official lighting of the town’s Christmas tree at Heritage Park.

Brownstown went all out for this year’s Hometown Christmas celebration Monday night, and attendees appreciated the effort.

“This is really nice that they brought extra stuff here for Brownstown,” Waneta Hanner said after checking out the live Nativity and Christmas tree display.

The Brownstown woman said she has attended the event with her family for a long time. On Monday night, she was accompanied by her son, Jason Cornett, grandson, Carson Cornett, and husband, Rick Hanner.

“The decorations, and whether it’s my son or grandkids, seeing their faces light up when Santa Claus comes and the different kinds of trees,” Waneta said of her favorite parts of the event.

Jason and Rick liked the tree display, too. Individuals and groups around the county decorated more than a dozen trees based on the theme “A Few of My Favorite Things.”

“I like all of the Christmas trees. Some of them look really nice,” Jason said.

“It’s really nice,” Rick said. “I like it, and I like the live manger out there.”

While Carson enjoyed seeing the display and decorations, he was ready to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas. That includes a remote-control Lego Batman car.

“He’s into Legos, anything Legos,” Waneta said, smiling.

The live Nativity was a popular attraction. During the three-hour event, around 20 members of Driftwood Christian Church in Vallonia rotated playing various roles, including shepherds with donkeys or sheep, Mary, Joseph and an angel.

David Reynolds said the church’s evangelism committee started the live Nativity several years ago.

“We had it at our church, and people would drive through,” he said. “We got to talking to Mark Norman at The Peoples Bank, and they decided it would be seen better if we had it up there, so we started having it there.”

That was always done the Wednesday before Christmas in the parking lot next to the bank, but this year, Reynolds said the church was asked to have the Nativity be a part of Hometown Christmas.

No matter where the Nativity is set up, the church members like participating.

“A lot of people have expressed thinking it’s really nice,” Pastor Steve Gommel said. “They drive by the bank there, and they saw it, and they say, ‘Well, that’s nice. They’ve got a town here that they can drive by and see a Nativity scene.’ I just like the idea of bringing it back to Christmas, to Christ.”

Reynolds said he still remembers a young girl’s interaction with church member Dave Wesner during the live Nativity a couple of years ago.

“He got to share the true Christmas story with her, and you ought to have seen her eyes when she sat there just looking at the baby,” he said. “That was pretty cool.”

Sharing the Christmas story is one reason Troy Thompson said he has been involved with the live Nativity since its inception.

“Even though we’re a country church 8 miles out of town, it gets us in town here and helps us spread the story of Christmas and the Word of Jesus,” he said. “We’re trying to keep it biblically accurate.”

Hometown Christmas was sponsored by the Brownstown Chamber of Commerce, Brownstown/Ewing Main Street, Jackson County History Center, Hillbilly Outlaws of Jackson County, McDonald’s of Brownstown, Psi Iota Xi sorority, Schneider Nursery and Radio 96.3 Yule Bus.

Luke Nolting, president of Brownstown/Ewing Main Street, said it was exciting see people in the downtown checking out all of the activities.

“I think everyone appreciated it,” he said. “Brownstown always comes together for stuff. I think it was nice because we had so many organizations. We had the history center, we had the courthouse, we had Main Street, we had the chamber, we had Brownstown high school, Brownstown middle school, the businesses that opened up. I think it was nice to have all of those helping and trying to make it a success.”

He said he was glad to have the added features this year.

“Main Street’s idea this year was to come up with something different to kind of have a whole hometown Christmas feel. Obviously, there’s a lot of room for improvement, and there’s a lot of stuff we can change next year and do different next year,” Nolting said.

“But I think as a whole, we really appreciate the history center doing their part, we really appreciate Driftwood Christian Church having their live Nativity and all of the organizations that helped, as well.”

The Hanners and Cornetts said they definitely will be back next year.

“I hope they continue this every year and it gets bigger and bigger. That would be nice,” Waneta said.

“That would be great, getting together and seeing everybody you know,” Jason said.

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Upcoming Christmas events at the Jackson County History Center, 105 N. Sugar St., Brownstown

Now through Jan. 6: Call 812-358-2118 to set up a time to see the Christmas tree display and vote for the people’s choice award.

6 to 7:30 p.m. Dec. 11: Christmas in the Village will feature caroling, cider, cookies, hot chocolate and an old-fashioned Christmas tree.

5 to 8 p.m. Dec. 14, 1 to 6 p.m. Dec. 15 and 1 to 4 p.m. Dec. 16: Children can visit with Santa Claus in the livery barn, and people can view the Christmas tree display.

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