Events began last Saturday with the Pet Parade supporting Small Town Shelter, followed by Christmas Bingo at the Cooler Bar and Grille on Sunday. Monday’s event was Pizza with Santa at the Cornerstone Restaurant, with Decorating Christmas Cookies and Dart Games Tuesday, Christmas Trivia Wednesday, a Christmas Scavenger Hunt Thursday, horse drawn wagon rides and hot cocoa and cookies on Friday, along with an ugly sweater party, and on Saturday a Chilli Cook Off, Santa On Main Street, and everything wraps up that night with the Lighted Tractor Parade.

This is the third year of the parade and Michelle Emory with the Sherman Chamber of Commerce reported over 60 have registered, making it a large parade. Saturday’s Chilli Cookoff is sponsored by the Sherman PTO and runs from 2 to 5 p.m., with Santa coming one hour before the parade from 5 to 6 p.m. and the parade beginning at 6 p.m. Children are welcome to bring their letters to meet Santa, sit on his lap, and take photos.

Emory added that from last weekend’s events — the Pet Parade and Christmas Bingo — many items were donated to the shelter, and $300 was raised along with boxes of toys collected for Toys for Tots.

“We have lots of different activities throughout the week,” Emory said. “We’re looking forward to a large crowd.”

The parade is set for 6 p.m. Saturday night and involves over 60 tractors and vehicles.

Thursday’s Scavenger Hunt is something that Emory said is new this year, and sponsored by the Minerva Free Library. The Scavenger Hunt is known as “How to Catch a Snowman”, and kids and families can stop by the library to pick up their bag from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. which will have all of the instructions inside. Participants will need their phone to take photos and share them to the Sherman Chamber of Commerce Facebook post that day with the correct hashtag that will be given on the day. Hunts can be done solo or with a team.

All of the Christmas events are something that brings the community together, Emory said.

“These events bring our small community together to help kickoff the holidays,” Emory said. “It’s like Sherman Day, it brings people in the community together and most events are free and support local organizations through the Chamber, which is awesome for our community to do.”

Emory said the Lighted Tractor Parade is all about Christmas and lights, and that a lot of hard work and effort goes into each of the floats. She invited everyone to come out to any of the activities, adding that for the parade there will be a lot of people and it will be dark, recommending that people wear Christmas necklaces or find ways to light themselves up as well as dressing warmly for the weather.

“Come out and enjoy the festivities,” Emory said. “We also want to thank everyone who has supported the Chamber and our community to make these events possible.”

A full schedule of events for the week can be found on the Sherman Chamber of Commerce Facebook page.