Monica Chavez BROWNSVILLE- Brownsville’s Holiday Village is now open and ready to enchant visitors throughout the winter season.
Since Nov. 20, the Holiday Village located at Dean Porter Park opened its doors to the public and will be open every day from 6 to 11 p.m. at no cost until New Year’s Day.
“I think it’s something family oriented.” Liz Hanley, Brownsville’s Holiday Village board member, said. “It’s something free, that families can come out and it’s wholesome and it’s not having to do with technology, and they can just come out, walk.”
Hanley said 14 years ago a member of the board brought the idea back from Utah, kickstarting the holiday village with ten cottages.
Visitors can enjoy more than 34 charming cottages at the Holiday Village where they can discover food vendors, free photos with Santa on weekends and live entertainment on select days.
Laurie Ray, chair of the Brownsville’s Holiday Village, said in order to keep the village free for the public they rely solely on volunteers such as the Parks and Recreations Department and the city who provides security, storage and transportation.
Ray said each cottage is stored and refreshed each year by youth carpenters but the lack of storage space limits them from having a bigger village.
“And so, when the season is over, these are trucked in a parade with a police escort to the to the airport. And there’s warehousing there where we keep them, where the city allows us to store them. Now, we use them every year. In fact, every five years it will be the same ones and we add more to them and then we refurbish them every five years. They get new paint, a new interior and yes, and new lights, everything.” Ray and Hanley said.
UTRGV is also hosting its first Holiday Village, organized by the Campus Activities Board.
It will be held in Edinburg on December fifth from 5 to 7 p.m. and on the 6th from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Brownsville.
There will be food vendors, free decorating activities, pictures with Santa and other surprises.
Ximena Reyes, pride and signature committee chair of the campus activities board, said they want to uplift students during finals week.
“Truly the inspiration was like the hallmark movies,” Reyes said. “Like we just looked at the posters and we were like, we want that. Like, we want to have that white Christmas that doesn’t happen in the valley, and we were like, we are going to create it. Even if it’s not that cold, we are going to make sure it feels magical for everybody.”
For more information on the Holiday Villages visit holidayvillagebrownsville.com or utrgv.edu.
