The Clinton County Cooperative Extension Office put a lot of time and effort into the two hour event held on the square last Friday night.

The event started at 4:00 p.m. with a story book walk and finished with the lighting of the Christmas Tree on the courthouse lawn.

Local author and cartoonist Alison Mason is shown at right signing books during the event. Mason’s book “Rudy’s Best Christmas Present Ever,” was the primary showcase for the story book walk.

In the top photo, several people gathered around the Christmas Tree Friday afternoon and sang “Silent Night” as the tree was lit to conclude the program.

In the bottom photo, Donnie Ferrell brought snow to the square and was a big hit with the children, who threw snowballs at each other during the event. The Fig Leaf was also the winner of the window decorating contest that took place.

“Everything went really well with Christmas on the Square this year. Despite having other events going on that caused some of our activities to be cancelled and the crowd to be a bit smaller than previous years, we had a great turnout and everyone participated in all the available festivities,” Christy Stearns said. “We had around 200 to sign in and know that we missed several. The candlelight ceremony was a perfect touch and I think people really enjoyed being together as a community, since we didn’t get to host the event last year. We appreciate all the businesses getting involved and the volunteers who worked to make the night a huge success. There are already ideas for what we can add next year. We want people to look forward to the event each year and make plans to be in town for it.”