Holiday Event Supercharges Christmas Spirit in Lakeside Village

Photos by Jordan Mathis. Video by David Hershey.

An estimated 3,000 revelers gathered along Lakeside Parkway for the 9^th Annual Lakeside Village Holiday Event on Wednesday, December 3.

Families from across Flower Mound and DFW showed up for photos with Santa, bounce houses, tubing on snow hills, and skating. Then there were the characters, caricature artists, balloon artists, and face painters.

The event is organized by Realty Capital’s Kelly Vance (director of accounting) and Sarah Brown (property and development manager). The pair work for many months in advance to ensure the event’s success. They also motivate many colleagues at Realty Capital to participate in setting up, tearing down, and running many of the activities.

“It felt like this was the biggest event to date,” said Vance. “So many people. The Mayor of Flower Mound even went down the snow hill at the end of the night!” (Note: adults are allowed to tube down the hill only on special occasions.)

Merchants contribute to festive atmosphere

A long line formed for the free pizza slices and arancini (risotto balls) at Mio Nonno Trattoria. Others gravitated toward the hot chocolate and Vanilla Biscotti at Epic Gelato.

Events like this also help educate my staff that we are a nice small community and sometimes, we just need to give back or come together to grow together.
Dr. Kumar Patel,
Personal Eyes

“Everyone on my staff likes to work the night of the event,” said Epic’s owner Richard Baldwin. “They enjoy interacting with the crowd. It was a good night for business as well.”

“My only regret,” said Adrian Krasniqi, general manager of Mio Nonno, “is that we get to do this only once a year! The event was a hit and everyone had a great time. This felt like the biggest one yet!”

Food and drink flowed freely at Engel & Völkers where large crowds filled the real estate office.

“We had hot cider and letters from Santa,” said Roxann Taylor, owner of Engel & Völkers, “a table of food plus prosecco, white wine, and waters. It was all gone in less than an hour.” And few of the visitors were in the market for a home in Lakeside Village.

“And those few,” said Taylor, “were awesome!”

“We got to see a lot of existing patients stopping by to say, ‘Hi,’ along with, hopefully, new future patients,” said Dr. Kumar Patel, owner of PersonalEyes. The store offered guests a chance to decorate ornaments.

“Events like this also help educate my staff that we are a nice small community and sometimes, we just need to give back or come together to grow together.”