FROM SUBMITTED REPORTS

Officials will light up the Old Hays County Courthouse grounds for the Christmas season during a ceremony at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2.

The event will include refreshments donated by H-E-B Grocery Co. and performances by the Scheib Center Christmas Carolers. Santa will take gift wishes from children between 6:15 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. The courthouse is located at 111 E. San Antonio St. at the center of the San Marcos downtown square.

The lighting ceremony also kicks off the Hays County Sheriff’s Office Brown Santa gift drive. Residents can also donate unwrapped toys or make a monetary donation by mail or in person at fundraisers scheduled around the county.

Brown Santa volunteers will sell bratwurst and Frito pie Dec. 3-6 during the San Marcos Sights & Sounds of Christmas festival at San Marcos Plaza Park, 206 N. CM Allen Parkway. During the program’s annual Holiday Lockdown on Dec. 5, community members will pay $100-$200 to “bond out” of a psuedo-imprisonment at the Hays County Government Center, 712 S. Stagecoach Trail.

The donation deadlines for Brown Santa are Dec. 11 for unwrapped gifts and Dec. 15 for wrapped gifts. The program is also looking for volunteers to staff donation events and help wrap and deliver gifts.

For information, contact Hays County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Dennis Gutierrez at 512-393-7877 or by email here.