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McDONALD - Defying convention, Santa came riding into the village on a fire truck, hugging, shaking hands with and high-fiving kids in the crowd.

Hundreds of people came to the village's 28th annual tree lighting ceremony Saturday night in front of the village fire department. People were invited to sing Christmas carols, snack on goodies, take hayrides and cheer on one longtime village resident as she lit the town's Christmas tree. The line of children to see Santa Claus stretched from the fire department bay doors to the parking lot.

Flipping the switch this year was Violet Kish, 80, who has been a McDonald resident for 58 years.

''That felt pretty good,'' she said, about doing the honors.

The Rev. Michael McHale of Woodland Park Methodist Church spoke briefly about troubles the area faced, linking them to the darkness that comes along with winter.

''My prayer is that the light from this tree might dispel some of that darkness, and light the hope in our hearts,'' he said before the invocation.

The decades-long tradition in the village attracted both past and current residents. Lisa Zeck of Terra Haute, Ind., was in McDonald visiting relatives and brought her daughter Lauren to the event she used to come to as a village resident years ago. Lauren used the opportunity to tell Santa she wanted a Nintendo DS for Christmas.

''We come here whenever we're home,'' Lisa Zeck said of the Thanksgiving holiday.

According to village resident Ellen Surak, who comes to the ceremony every year with a camera, the tradition began when the adult Sunday school at the Methodist church went caroling and offered coffee and cookies to people. Surak said she saw the ceremonies through the thick and thin recalling some years when it was so cold that the marching band couldn't play, to others when an emergency call threw a curveball to Santa's big entrance. She said a police cruiser was meant to shine its spotlight on the roof of the fire department when someone yelled ''I think I see Santa!'' but Santa was left to ad-lib it when the officer had to get to the call in a hurry.

This year, though, there were no unplanned surprises.

brodgers@tribtoday.com