ELBRIDGE #- In less than two weeks, Santa Claus will becoming to town.

Saturday night, he made a special early appearance at the Elbridge Free Library, as the guest of honor at the library's annual Christmas in Elbridge celebration.

Greg Hunter, president of the library board, said that the celebration spans more than a decade.

“I've been on the board 10 years,” Hunter said.

“We've been doing this at least a dozen years, probably more. It is a tradition, a real community event.”

Many young visitors arrived early, anxious to have their chance to see Santa and get in their Christmas wish requests to the man himself.

Noah Fields, 5, of Camillus, made the trip along with his mother, Kimberlee.

Fields said that she thought this would be the perfect chance to give her young son the chance to meet Santa.

“This is his first visit with Santa,” Fields said.

“I think it is awesome they are doing this. I think it is a great opportunity for him. He got to talk to Santa, and we videotaped it and everything. I think this is really great.”

Noah said that along with telling Santa how good he has been all year and promising to be good in the days leading up to Christmas and to be mindful of his parents, he got a chance to tell Santa first-hand his biggest Christmas wish.

“I told him I wanted Grand Action Canyon, (A Thomas the Train toy),” Noah said.

“I wasn't nervous or anything. I was really glad to see Santa and he gave me a candy cane and a book about zebras.”

For the past two years the library has been making an effort to incorporate its mission of promoting reading in young children with the Christmas gathering.

Hunter said that for the past two years, the library has purchased a variety of children's books for Santa to read to and give out to the children who come to visit.

“We do it to promote reading,” Hunter said. “It has been great; the kids really seem to love it.”

The Christmas festivities also drew a number of library regulars who wanted to share in some of the holiday cheer.

Kristina Van Zandt and her son William, 5, of Elbridge, also decided to stop off at the library Saturday night.

“I think this is really nice,” Van Zandt said. “This is the first time we've come to this, so William can see Santa, of course. We are here every Wednesday for story time, but I think it is really nice that they do something special like this for the kids. It is very nice.”

Along with Santa Claus, the library also hosted a performance of Christmas favorites, put on by the Jordan-Elbridge Community Band, conducted by Maria Hare.

The band got all those in attendance in the holiday spirit with all the classics of the Christmas season.

And to truly mark the occasion of Christmas, the library lit its tree as the highlight of the evening.

Hunter said that a long-standing tradition with the tree has been the practice of community members buying bulbs to be placed on the tree in memory of a loved one.

Already there were more than 20 names on a board posted on the library wall, commemorating people of the community.

Hunter said that community members can still purchase bulbs to be placed on the tree up to Christmas.

Funds raised for the bulbs and other fundraising efforts, are earmarked to help the library purchase new computers for public use.

“We've been doing the bulbs for a number of years,” Hunter said.

“It is all to help raise funds for the library. People have been really supportive of this. We couldn't do all of this without the library staff and all the people that help support the library and this is a way of saying thank you to all those people.”