Face painting, gifts and more at Lunch with Santa

LYNN – Santa Claus came to town Saturday to kick off the holiday season with more than 400 Lynn-area families in an annual event that also raised money for the city’s parks and recreation department.Santa’s sleigh collected a dusting of snow outside Old Tyme Restaurant on Boston Street as dozens of children, guided gently by their camera-toting parents, sat on his lap and read off their Christmas lists.”I asked him for a Wii U,” said 8-year-old Kristen Johnston, who posed with Santa alongside her neighbor, 8-year-old Abigail Melanson. ” ? He said I’ll probably get it.”View a photo galleryJohnston and her family have been attending Lunch with Santa since Old Tyme’s owner, Bob Stilian, started the event five years ago.In addition to meeting Santa, children and their families got their faces painted, decorated gingerbread cookies and noshed on chicken fingers and french fries. The food is donated by Stilian and sold by volunteer parks and recreation staff, who collect 100 percent of the sales to benefit city programs like ski lessons, indoor baseball and softball and summer park events. They raise between $500-$700 each year.”It’s a great way to start the holiday season,” said Lisa Nerich, the assistant superintendent of parks and playgrounds. “It’s nice to see so many families out.”The event is becoming a holiday tradition for Lynners like Abel Cuevas and Stephanie McClelland, who brought their 22-month-old son, Aysen Cuevas, to see Santa for the first time.Unlike other youngsters whose meeting with Santa ended in tears, Abel Cuevas said his son greeted the man in red with a smile.”It was a pleasant surprise,” Abel Cuevas said. “He gave Santa a high five and everything.”Like the Johnstons, Abel Cuevas said he plans to come back with his son every year.”As a parent, I like to establish my own family traditions for the holiday season,” he said. “It’s something we plan on coming to for the rest of my life.”And Stilian said he thinks Lunch with Santa – and its springtime sister event, Lunch with the Easter Bunny – creates a sense of community while doing good for the city parks and recreation department.”We have customers that come in all year long and say, ?That was such a great thing.’ They look forward to it,” he said.Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].