Holiday first

The Thunder Bay Founders' Museum and Pioneer Village held its first Christmas brunch on Sunday.

Families stopped by at the historical village along Highway 61 to visit Santa Claus and enjoy a late breakfast. Children also spent some time at the school making decorations for gingerbread men. Pioneer Village used to host a concert about two years ago but never held any particular Christmas festivities.

All donations went to the Regional Food Distribution Association and the Thunder Bay District Humane Society.

Aaron MoQuin, general manager at Pioneer Village, said with the success of their Halloween town event, they decided to try to host something during the holiday season.

“We need to remember that Christmas is all about giving and that’s why we’re supporting two local charities,” MoQuin said. “We’re trying to create a lot of new things here. Bring more families out to the village.”

MoQuin said they have had a steady flow of families come in but didn’t know how many in total. With the only way to the village being in a vehicle, MoQuin said they will consider a shuttle service for both their Halloween event as well as the Christmas one.

But given the response from visitors, there will be another Christmas event next year, he said.

“We definitely want to bring more of these events to founders' and utilize the great facility here,” he said.

He added that they primarily relied on social media, posters at school and word of mouth to advertise for the event.