MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake High School students will sponsor a holiday party for the community, complete with Santa and a baked potato bar, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the high school.

This is the third year for the “Family Holiday Festival,” started by librarian Jessica Merritt. “It’s grown. It’s grown a lot since the first year.”

That first year all the events were in the library, but “we’ve now spilled out into the (high school) commons,” Merritt said.

Admission is free. The high school is in the midst of its annual canned food drive, however, so students are soliciting donations of cans, boxes and bags of non-perishable food. The food collected will be donated to the Moses Lake Food Bank.

Over the three years the party has grown because clubs, organizations and individual students have volunteered to help. The night includes children’s games, a cakewalk, a petting zoo sponsored by the high school’s FFA chapter and movies and popcorn in the MLHS theater sponsored by Mu Alpha Theta, the high school math team. The ASB and Link Crew will help kids decorate Christmas ornaments. The MLHS culinary club will have a cookie decorating table.

There’s a baked potato bar, with potatoes donated by a local farmer through Simplot, Merritt said. The owners of Papa’s Casino donated the potato bar toppings, and the FFA chapter is doing the chili.

Students in the ASL (American Sign Language) class will be singing Christmas songs and doing the signing along with it. They’ll be hanging out next to the line of people waiting to see Santa for pictures.

Yes, Santa will be there. “Definitely pictures with Santa,” Merritt said. Buddy the Elf will be there also. Buddy will be wandering around the commons and library and will be ready to take pictures with children.

Merritt said the party grew out of a tradition in her family – her parents always took pictures of the kids with Santa. She wanted to pass that tradition on to kids in the Moses Lake community, she said.

So the first year there were a few events in the library, the potato bar and petting zoo, and pictures with Santa. But there were many more people than anticipated, “and then it grew from there,” Merritt said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].