Ovando ushers in Christmas season

Ovando's Annual Old West Christmas Fest once again offered families and guests a small-town respite from the commercial excesses of Black Friday with a return to its traditional timeframe, immediately following Thanksgiving Day.

"A lot of people don't want to go to town and deal with those crowds," said Leigh Ann Valiton, who took over as the event's lead organizer this year.

In 2015, the celebration of the holiday season moved to the first weekend in December to give organizers time to enjoy their own Thanksgiving weekend.

This year, switching the date back to Thanksgiving weekend seemed to pay off. It allowed them to bring back the craft show, which had fallen by the wayside, and drew a sizable crowd to town to enjoy the festivities and the annual visit by Cowboy Claus.

"We've had a lot of traffic," said Valiton, who spent most of the day at the school gym, attending to the craft fair. "The vendors are very happy. They said they've sold a lot of things, so that's wonderful."

Downtown, the day included traditional Gingerbread house building at the Fire Hall, wagon rides provided by B&C Horses from Lincoln and several food vendors in the town square. Ovando local Dena Hooker was the new vendor on the scene this year. Using her traditional Dutch-ovens, she baked apple and blueberry pie, coffee cake and cinnamon rolls for hungry guests.

Across the street, the occasional loud brays of a donkey drew attention to a small petting zoo that gave kids the chance to meet M&M, Cindy Meiler's donkey, as well as a pair of goats brought down from Lincoln by Susie Gehring. Although not part of the attraction, Gehring's dog June Bug also got quite a bit of attention.

"Leann's doing a great job for her first year taking it over," said Kathy Shoendoerfer, who had volunteered as a Christmas Fest organizer since it began in 2001.

Cowboy Claus road into town at 1 p.m., nearly unnoticed this year without his typical police escort, but once he arrived he proved to be a main attraction. More than 50 kids lined up at the Brand Bar Museum to pass their Christmas wishes along to him.

Missing from the square for the first time this year was the familiar wooden hatchet target. For years Tom Black taught kids and adults alike how to throw a hatchet during Christmas Fest. Black passed way in 2017 but his brother-in-law, Pete Stamp, made the trip out from his home in Washington state to carry on the tradition last year. He couldn't make it this year.

"Tom's brother-in-law wanted to do it, but can't do it after Thanksgiving," said Shoendoerrer. "He has Thanksgiving with his family in another state, and to get here in 24 hours, that's a rough call."