A Disappointed Chamber

All the excitement of the holidays are upon us and celebrations are springing up throughout East Texas with tree lighting ceremonies, parades featuring jolly old St. Nick and photos with Santa. Unfortunately, weather is always a factor as event organizers look toward the skies and closely monitor weather forecasts to see if Mother Nature would prefer the events to be held a different day. Such was the case for Rusk’s Hometown Christmas, which was to be postponed due to the predicted severe weather, heavy rains and high winds Saturday. Although the conditions Saturday weren’t as bad as had been predicted, the organizers had chosen on Thursday to err on the side of caution for the safety of all everyone. The Chamber of Commerce executive committee had originally planned on simply changing the date to the following Saturday, however, due to previous commitments many of the vendors and entertainers were already booked at different events and would be unavailable. This led to a reluctant but disappointing decision by the Chamber to cancel Hometown Christmas entirely this year.