Verilu Infante 
BROWNSVILLE – “Three! Two! One!”
That’s the countdown to the first lighting of the season at Brownsville’s Holiday Village, which is celebrating its 10th year anniversary.
According to the Holiday Village Committee Representative Laurie Ray, the concept of the village was created when a woman by the name of Mellena Connor read an article about a similar event in Utah.
“She had a meeting and came up with a number of people who were willing to sponsor the first houses that very first year there were nine houses built, and Santa’s gazebo,” said Ray.
Ray states that there are currently 33 cottages and that number is expected to grow.
“Our limitation is storage space because the city of Brownsville provides us with a warehouse to store them in. We have a very large warehouse and it is filling up. At this point we’ll keep going until we’re out of space, but we’re not out of space just yet we’ve got another few years to go,” she continued.
Brownsville residents who visit the village all come for various reasons, but for one family, the village is a safe environment for their son to enjoy his love of the outdoors.
“He loves the outdoors and last year he was afraid of Santa and this year he’s actually more into it, so we figured we would bring him to see how he would respond to Santa, and he loves it,” said Brownsville resident Mayra Felix.
Unfortunately Santa was not at the park that day, but when asked if they would bring their son back another day to see Santa, their son’s reaction says it all.
“Yes!” “Yes!” “We thought he was actually going to be here.” “Santa!” “There you go that’s your answer,” she continued.
The Holiday Village is currently open to the public until January 1st.
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