Hampton kicks off holiday season

Sirens blared as a parade of fire trucks and first responder vehicles from Hampton and North Hampton volunteer fire departments guided Santa Claus and Rudolph to the Hampton Community Center on Thursday evening.

Fireworks kicked off the annual holiday extravaganza, and then visitors gathered in the community center parking lot where food trucks and a DJ playing Christmas music awaited the arrival of Santa.

After Santa made his way into the community center for photos, many families huddled around the sleigh and took pictures sitting inside of the fully decorated flying craft.

Appearances by other holiday celebrities helped to pass the time as children waited in line to see Santa up close and in person.

The Grinch, the famous miserable green character out of Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” was spotted inside the community center and begrudgingly let some lucky children take pictures by its side.

Families gathered, many in matching Christmas pajamas, awaiting the opportunity to tell Old St. Nick what they’d like for Christmas.

“I want everyone to be good, and hopefully we’ll have snow for Christmas,” said Santa.

In addition to the holiday events, reenactors from the local Depreciation Lands Museum were present teaching children how to play with toys of a time long ago.

Local vendors came out to display new and exotic products, and one local distillery had some exciting news.

Joe Kiewra, part owner of Lucky Sign Spirits and distillery located right in Gibsonia, was giving out samples of their holiday beverages while also letting people know about their newest employee and head distiller.

“We recently hired Joe Jackson from the hit TV show ‘Moonshiners,’” Kiewra said.

Jackson will now be helping to lead Lucky Sign Spirits into new and exciting ventures.

In addition to the vendors and volunteers who all made the event a success, residents came out in large numbers and were rewarded with a balmy December evening. The weather couldn’t have been better, and just as Santa promised, we might have to wait for closer to Christmas to see snow.