The countdown is on to Christmas, and locals have plenty of reasons to be joyful.

On Saturday evening, the Downtown Christmas Parade of Lights was held after being postponed a week, while earlier in the day the annual Breakfast With Santa was held at the Vicksburg Convention Center and a Gingerbread House Workshop was offered at the W.K. Purks Center YMCA.

Pastry chef Heather Burns and her assistant Nancy Gates served as facilitators for the gingerbread workshop.

Hundreds turned out for the 15th annual Breakfast With Santa, which is a fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mississippi

The convention center sold about 300 advanced tickets for $7 and at least 200 tickets were sold the day of the event at $10 each. Raffle tickets were also sold before and during the event, sales coordinator for the VCC Sue Bagby said.

More positives in Vicksburg this week:

• The Mission Friends class of 4- and 5-year-olds at First Baptist Church Vicksburg started gathering donations to buy goats for Haiti for the But God Ministries in Thoman, Haiti. Their goal was to raise $50 for one goat, but after the entire church got behind the project, $2,500 was raised for the project, which will supply 50 goats to the Haitian community.

• The South Street Safe Place, 1122 South St., held a block party Saturday. The home, which is a joint venture of the Good Shepherd Community Center, Beyond the Walls Ministry and Hawkins United Methodist Church, will serves a place of refuge, Good Shepherd director Tommy Miller said.

“Our dream is to have it open on a daily basis, Monday through Friday, for people who need to come either to get out of the weather, have a hot meal, have a place for them to shower, have a laundry facility where so they can wash clothes, and if needed, to have referrals to doctors or other agencies in the community,” Miller said.