Santa Claus and his entourage made several appearances in the Pontiac over the weekend, bringing holiday cheer to hundreds of children eager to meet with the jovial fellow and place their requests for what they hope to find under the tree on Dec. 25.
Santa and Mrs. Claus welcomed guests to the George Bryson House in Mansfield on Saturday afternoon, where Santa was handing out some early holiday gifts to the kids.
“This event puts a lot of people in the Christmas spirit,” said Geneviève Gagnon, president of the George Bryson House.
“It’s important to bring people together and the George Bryson House helps remind people where we came from.”
The event also featured local vendors with baked goods and holiday decorations.
“Most of the vendors told me that they left with about half the stuff they came in with,” Gagnon said.
“It’s excellent and we had a beautiful day.”
The event raised money for the George Bryson House through a 50/50 draw and BBQ sales.
Recently, the library at the George Bryson House moved from the main building to another building on the property called the Dagenais House. The building was opened in Feb. 2024 after the municipality moved its operations into the Bryson House.
Sandra Lavoie is one of three people who work at the library. They had their doors open Saturday afternoon to encourage people to learn more about the services they offer.
“People have bad memories about being in school and reading books,” Lavoie said. “But it’s amazing the services we have. You can borrow games or a pass for the museum.”
Next year will be the fifteenth year the market has happened, a success Gagnon said she’s very proud to see.
Down the road, Bryson’s Forest Inn was transformed into a place many children only visit in their dreams on Saturday – Santa’s Village, but Candyland-themed. Lollipops and candy canes hung from the ceiling, and the smell of peppermint wafted through the building.
Kids got to take part in making candy kebobs, writing postcards to Santa and were even given their own bag of reindeer food to sprinkle on the snow at home on Christmas Eve.
Chantal Gravelle is a member of the Bryson Recreation Association and helped to organize this event for the last three years. This time, the theme was Candyland, which Gravelle said they dreamt up last year and have been working on the decorations since August.
“Families don’t have to travel and we want to bring Santa here,” Gravelle said.
Chanelle Shea was at the event with her three kids and plenty of cousins. They all came from Campbell’s Bay to get a photo with Santa.
“Not everybody can afford to travel and it’s hard to travel with young kids and keep their clothes cute for the pictures,” she said. “It’s nice for our kids to make memories with local kids.”
Gravelle said that they had about 30 kids registered to take a photo with Santa and participate in activities each hour. In total, about 100 kids took part in the event.
Toys were donated by Giant Tiger and Canadian Tire in Shawville. The JLS in Bryson also offered a discount on toys which were all used in a holiday raffle.
Tickets for children were $15 and offset the costs of materials for the event. The organizing committee also put on a Christmas market on Saturday evening, and vendor fees collected also helped cover the cost of recreating Santa’s magical village in Bryson.
