A real old-fashioned downpour threatened to wash out the Franklin Retail and Business Association’s Old-Fashioned Christmas on Saturday, but the weather rallied enough by the event’s start at 11 a.m., and plenty of children and their families ventured downtown.
Volunteers Jodi Lewis, executive director of the Franklin Area Chamber of Commerce, and Karen Carey, a Realtor with Venango Real Estate, were working the registration table for the event. Both thought the turnout was quite good when taking the weather into consideration. By noon, about 100 kids had arrived to pick up their free stockings and event maps. The event lasted until 2 p.m.
As the winds gusted and the temperature began to drop, a lot of hands clutched free hot cocoas from 4-H Dairy Princess Kaylee Knapp, who had a station providing the cocoa at the corner of 13th and Elk streets.
Kids also were able to step out of the wet weather to decorate frames at Victorian City Art & Frame with Kyla Parkinson, as well as make a reindeer craft inside Iron Furnace Coffee with Penn State Extension 4-H Youth Development Educator Annah Burke.
And it wouldn’t have been a complete Old-Fashioned Christmas without photo opportunities with Santa and Mrs. Claus, which took place outside the Barrow-Civic Theatre.
And, of course, kids told Santa what they wanted for Christmas. Six-year-old Caleb Crissman, of Clintonville, who asked for a remote control car, also could have had inflation on his mind when he put in an additional request for “money, money, money!”
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