SANFORD - Come join the Central Carolina Community College family and get in the Christmas spirit!

CCCC hosts its first Christmas Tree Lighting and Photos with Santa event from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, in the Lee County Campus Plaza at the main campus entrance.

The event is free and open to children of all ages.

The Southern Lee High School Marching Band will get everyone in the spirit as it parades through campus, leading Santa into the plaza. The jolly old elf will ride in on an antique Deep River Fire Department fire truck since his reindeer are resting up for their big trip on Christmas Eve.

The excitement will grow as the lights on the college's 18-foot Christmas tree are turned on and Julian Philpott, chair of the CCCC Board of Trustees, reads the holiday classic, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas." Hot cocoa prepared by CCCC's Chef Gregg Hamm's Cafe 21 and cookies prepared by student inmates at the Harnett Correctional Institution will be served to all. Ornaments made by HCI students will be distributed to children while the supply lasts.

Santa will be eager to meet all of the children and take their Christmas wishes back to the North Pole. He and the college's mascot, Charlee Cougar, will be available to pose for pictures with visitors. The pictures will be uploaded at the CCCC Foundation's website, www.cccc.edu/foundation/ and can be downloaded for free starting the following day.

After the event, everyone is invited to go to the Classroom and Fitness Center (CFC) gymnasium to watch the Cougars take on William Peace University in an intense match-up on the hardwood. Tip-off is at 7 p.m.

Come out and join the college community for this special occasion. The CCCC Plaza is located at the main entrance to the campus, 1105 Kelly Drive, Sanford. For more information about the event, contact Emily Hare, CCCC Foundation associate director at 919-718-7230 or ehare@cccc.edu.