By Mike Harris
Special to the Alpine Mountaineer
The cold and breezy December air could not stop the thousands of families and friends from attending the third annual Goodwin’s Crestline Family Christmas celebration, held Saturday, Dec. 2, at Lake Gregory’s North Shore parking lot.
“I think we had more than 3,000 folks come through to meet Santa, enjoy the Christmas music, see the lighting of the Christmas tree and enjoy the celebration,” said Mike Johnstone, VP and general manager for Goodwin and Son’s Market.
The numbers of hot dogs, hot cocoa and coffee served attest to Johnstone’s crowd estimate.
“We served more than 700 hot dogs, more than 100 gallons of hot cocoa, and Higher Grounds Coffee Co. served more than 60 gallons of coffee,” Johnstone said, “all of it free to the public.”
And for children 10 years old or younger, Goodwin’s handed out 500 gifts as kids went to see Santa and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.
There were plenty of Christmas carols, songs and live music, much of it provided by members of Woodlands Church.
Along with Goodwin’s Market employees, five churches – Woodlands Church, New Life Christian Fellowship, Mountain Hope Center, Crestline First Baptist Church, and Lake Gregory Community Church – were on hand to help with games for kids and other activities.
“Many of our employees volunteered to help and we certainly appreciated that,” Johnstone said.
County Fire firefighters had a difficult time at first getting the bonfire lighted but finally they were successful.
As usual, San Bernardino County Fire was on hand to light the stack of wood pallets for the night’s bonfire and maintain it.
Watching the embers from the bonfire rise into the air, one woman said, “I hope they don’t catch the trees on fire,” to which the man standing next to her replied, “Well, at least we’ve got the fire department here to put it out!” There was never any danger, one firefighter added.
The Christmas story was told and the usual countdown to throwing the switch that lighted the holiday tree across the North Shore swim area was successful, all to cheers and everyone wishing each other Merry Christmas, with a few hugs and kisses added.
What about next year, Johnstone was asked.
“We’re already planning next year’s celebration,” he said.
Was there anything he would change for next year?
“The food line (for free hot dogs and free hot cocoa) got pretty long toward the end,” he said. “I think next year we’ll need to have two food lines so folks don’t spend a lot of time just waiting.”
Johnstone said one concern for this year was parking, since the Goodwin’s Market parking lot was not available due to the market being rebuilt because the roof collapsed in early March.
“I didn’t hear anyone talking about it and I was here all night,” he said.
0 Comments