The village of Panama is changing some things around with their normal Christmas events, including a food pantry donation box and lighting up Panama for the school’s care closet. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

PANAMA — As the village of Panama prepares for its annual Christmas events, Christmas in Panama and the Lighting Competition, one comes with the addition of a food donation box and the other comes with a change.

Christmas in Panama is set for Saturday, Nov. 29, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Panama Methodist Church, 22 East Main Street. This year, the village is also asking for donations to the food pantry when people come to shop, and all money collected from the event’s vendors will be donated to the food pantry. A food collection box will be set up for non-perishable items to be donated to the food pantry, which also operates out of the Methodist Church. Mayor William Schneider noted during the November board meeting that this is something prudent with today’s climate.

“That’s kind of what we were thinking with where we will give it this year,” Village Trustee Kim Davis said. “Every food pantry in Chautauqua County is hurting.”

It was suggested that a donation to the food pantry is something that could continue going forward at the event as well.

As far as the Christmas Lighting contest goes, the village has been seeing a decrease in participation and interest for it over the last few years. This year, rather than having the contest, the village board discussed making a change along similar lines with the food pantry donation at Christmas in Panama.

“Maybe instead of doing the three winners, maybe we take that money and buy things like diapers and paper towels, stuff that the food pantry doesn’t normally get in that people may be in need of,” Village Treasurer Larissa Enlow said. “Or maybe we do the school’s closet. Maybe instead of doing the lighting contest we light up Panama with a big donation to them, just maybe give it a break for a year or two and do something in place of that.”

The board then discussed doing it as keeping track of how many houses are lit up on a certain night and deciding how much to donate based on the amount of houses with lights on to the care closet at the school. The school’s care closet offers items for students besides food such as clothes or school supplies and offers them the ability to discreetly meet up with someone to go and get items from it.

Rather than having it focused solely on Christmas Lights, the board also discussed selling blue porch lights, connecting it to Panama Pride with the Panama colors, with money going towards the same cause, and have them turn the blue lights on on that specific night that gets chosen. The blue lightbulbs will be available for purchase at specific open stores during the day, such as Panama Auto – who Davis reached out to at the meeting and confirmed would be willing to help sell the bulbs – for $5 each , and the board plans to donate a certain amount to the school’s care closet based on how many houses are lit up.

If the bulbs ordered do not fit into everyone’s porch lights, the board said they could also have the option of putting it up in the window or using their own, and it would still count in the amount towards the donation even if someone did not purchase the bulbs from them.

“So the deal would be in lieu of doing the lighting contest we’re going to show our support for the community, holiday spirit, and Panther Pride, by displaying a blue lightbulb and Christmas decorations if you can,” Schneider said.

The normal $200 prize money for the light contest plus whatever is made from selling the bulbs and the amount of houses lit up on the night the board chooses, will all go towards the school’s care closet.