Charlotte Rockwell meets Santa at the Panora Community Center December 7th.

Dylan and Isaac Hounsom make a Christmas tree craft with the U.S. Sunbeams 4-H Club.

Elves, reindeer, and penguins roamed about the Panora Community Center and Veterans Auditorium as the Panora Chamber of Commerce held their annual Breakfast with Santa and Friends event Saturday.

Attendees filled up on pancakes and sausages, with proceeds of the meal going towards the Chamber’s downtown holiday lighting. Kids then did a variety of crafts and games inside “Santa’s Workshop” with Chamber volunteers and other local groups like the Women for Panora’s Future and U.S. Sunbeams 4-H Club. Guthrie County Fair Queen and U.S. Sunbeams member Rylee Sloss says this was her eighth year helping kids make a holiday craft, and she shares what she enjoys about the event, “All of it, I mean it’s just fun to see their smiles when they walk up and they have an even bigger smile when they see what the end product is of their craft.”

No Breakfast with Santa is complete without the man in red, and he comments on what makes this visit to Panora special, “There’s nothing better than this those kids the way they just look at you like you’re it. And I go home everyday and I tell Mrs. Santa ‘This is the best thing that ever happened to me.’ This day is the best thing.”

Besides Mr. Claus and his sidekick elf named Tiny, the Chamber volunteers were also well-dressed for the pancake breakfast, wearing new aprons stating “I’m a flippin’ Chamber member.”