A small crowd gathered in the Mt. Airy Town Hall on Thursday evening to celebrate the Christmas season with their community, light the tree, enjoy refreshments and await a visit from Santa Claus.
“We’re very pleased with the turnout we had this evening,” City Manager and Police Chief Tim Jarrell said. “We always look forward to an opportunity where we can do things for our citizens, and tonight is one of those.”
Santa’s sled caught a Northern wind and veered him off-track to Mt. Airy, but he made it to the Christmas celebration with the help of his reindeer. Even though he was late, the children were just as excited to see him.
While Mt. Airy’s Christmas celebration usually includes Christmas carols from a local school or church, this year, those arrangements couldn’t be made. Even without music, this year’s Christmas celebration was special as a community gathered to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year.
This was also the last Christmas season that Mayor Gary Morris would host the Christmas festivities, with his 20-year-long run as mayor coming to an end this month.
“It’s a very mixed-emotions type thing,” Morris said. “I have enjoyed being mayor, we’ve had a lot of good things happen, served a lot of good people and I’m so proud of this school.”
Over his 20 years, one of the endeavors he’s most proud of is his passion project of restoring the old Mt. Airy Schoolhouse to become the town hall. The town held their Christmas celebration there, in the upstairs gym, where the sound of children running and laughing was a welcome sound in the old school’s walls.
“I know that’s special for him [Morris],” Jarrell said. “And because it’s special for him, it makes us as employees feel more festive, [especially] to be able to give this to him.”
The Christmas celebration may be over in Mt. Airy, but there are many more events on the way, such as Baldwin and Clarkesville’s Christmas events on Friday. For a list of lots more area Christmas events, click here.
