About Drayton's Old Fashioned Christmas

	Drayton's Old Fashioned Christmas is just around the corner. This year we'll be streaming the event live via this website. Audiences will be able to observe and listen to events, meet some of the residents, do some local Christmas shopping and even send Christmas greetings to one and other. Should be a great opportunity for snow birds and expatriated Draytonites to keep up with the kids, grandkids, and old friends and neighbors. Might even be kind of fun for any of you who stumble upon this site and have no connection to Drayton, North Dakota. You're certainly welcome... maybe next year you'll come for real.
For anyone unfamiliar with Drayton, North Dakota, we're a rural town located in northeast North Dakota. We're situated approximately 30 miles from the Canadian border on the Red River of the North. The town and surrounding area sits on the bottom of an ancient lake bed which was once Glacial Lake Agassiz. The lake bed gives rise to very fertile ground so it's no wonder agriculture is our primary industry. We're also rich in wildlife, known nationwide for our channel catfish and have an interesting history that starts thousands of years ago with the Native Americans.
	Alexander Henry Jr., an explorer and fur trader for the Northwest Company established a post just south of Drayton in 1800. This marked the beginning of settlement in North Dakota. In time, Ox Carts carrying furs from Winnipeg to Minneapolis began to squeak through the Red River Valley, followed by steamships and eventually the railroad. The now famous author Laurainne Snelling, who writes historical novels based on the scandinavian immigrants who pioneered this area in the late 1800's, hangs her hat here once in a while and is quite active with our community.
Every year the community holds an Old Fashioned Christmas. Very simple it includes a variety of Christmas related activities including music, a living nativity, a Tree of Lights memorial service, Santa Claus, local vendors, and of course lots of great food.
	Since, like many of the small rural communities across the United States, many of our people live elsewhere, but miss and enjoy staying connected with the community. This year, we thought we'd try something different and make Old Fashioned Christmas accessible to all via the internet. It's a grand experiment for us, but it could be fun. So, that in a nutshell, is what we're doing here.
For the next few weeks as we develop the site, Vicky Mouse, the Animal Republic of Robbin's official Christmas Mouse will serve as online hostess. Kind of a boring stream most of the time, we know, but we're new to this streaming thing, and we need to keep the stream active to learn more about it.
	Hopefully by Old Fashioned Christmas we'll have a program and the technology down so that we can bring you a an engaging experience. Come back to the site often as it will be progressing fairly rapidly. We welcome your ideas in the coming weeks for ways that we might best create a great Old Fashioned Christmas experience.
Also, if you're stuck for Christmas gift ideas for people in the community come back often and check out our vendors as they are added to the site. We'll be helping them to set up so you can shop them online. You might even find something that appeals to you. In the works are cookbooks, clothing, christmas lefse, gift certificates, local crafts and much more... Remember, this is a work in progress, so come back once in a while to see where it goes.