BROWNSTOWN — Brownstown Ewing Main Street’s annual Hometown Christmas has taken on a new look this year.

Instead of a one-night event, a variety of activities are planned on different dates to help get Brownstown residents in the holiday spirit.

On Nov. 25, the town and Heritage Park were lit up. Three days later, a merchant holiday passport was rolled out to give people a chance to visit businesses and win prizes.

On Wednesday and again Dec. 14, pictures with Santa will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at Heritage Park, 121 E. Walnut St.

Santa also will be at the nearby Jackson County Courthouse, 111 S. Main St., at 6 p.m. Dec. 13 with a few of his reindeer and helpers providing cookies and hot chocolate.

Then on Dec. 18, a free movie, “Holiday Inn,” will be shown from 3 to 5 p.m. at Royal Off-the-Square Theatre, 121 W. Walnut St. Santa will be back at Heritage Park from 1 to 3 p.m. and from 5 to 7 p.m. that day for photos.

Brownstown Ewing Main Street has typically held the one-night event at the courthouse, and it still is this year for Dec. 13.

But Blake Hackman, the agriculture teacher and FFA adviser at Brownstown Central High School, said he, Bobby Eldridge and Margie Strange came up with ideas to do something special for Christmas.

“I approached Brownstown Ewing Main Street, and they said, ‘Just do what you want to do,’” Hackman said. “They gave us the full rights to do what we wanted to do, so we came up with a plan. It had to do with Heritage Park. We lit it all up, and then we’re going to have Santa there at different times this season, so Santa is going to be in Brownstown more than once to see the little kiddies.”

For decorating Heritage Park, Hackman received assistance from his FFA members.

“Our FFA for the past several years has been doing community service projects in Brownstown to make Brownstown look better, so we started a campaign this year, which has an acronym BOB, which is the first name of Bob Myers, who was the ag teacher here for years. It also stands for Beautification of Brownstown,” Hackman said.

The chapter does landscaping around town, maintains trees near the fairgrounds, builds things for Heritage Park and more.

“We just have taken a lot of responsibility for helping to maintain the appearance of Brownstown,” Hackman said.

Christmas lights were put on the trees at the park, and there also are rows of large stakes with greenery garland, lights and a lantern on each one leading up to the pavilion.

“It’s beautiful at night,” Hackman said.

Art students also became involved in Hometown Christmas by painting 12 large wooden signs based on the carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” and FFA members framed them. Each is illuminated by a spotlight, and they are placed along both sides of North Main Street, or U.S. 50, coming into the north end of town.

“Even kids in school that aren’t in FFA that helped paint those signs came up to me and said, ‘Mr. Hackman, those are so cool. I helped paint No. 5 with the five golden rings,’” he said. “It’s just neat to get the kids involved, and then also, they take more pride in their community, and hopefully as they get older, they’ll be more involved in the community. That’s the whole purpose of it.”

The welcome sign coming into town also is decorated, items will be placed in the flowerpots through town and Christmas music is playing outside above Blondie’s Pizzeria and Pub from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Hackman also encourages people ages 21 and up to participate in the holiday passport program. Passports are available at any of the 21 participating business, and all people have to do is pick one up and have each business put a stamp on it. Passports must be turned in by Dec. 10, and each business is giving away a prize, and winners will be drawn Dec. 12.

“If someone fills out the whole passport, we’ll take those and our FFA is going to give away a $300 Visa card to someone, so it’s a nice little thing for them to do,” Hackman said. “There’s a lot of neat stuff being given away, and you don’t have to purchase anything to participate.”

The list of participating businesses is available in a post on the Brownstown Hometown Christmas Facebook page.

“I went to like 40 businesses, and the ones participating are the ones that sent back the application to participate,” Hackman said. “Hopefully next year, more will get on with that, too.”