The Christmas holiday season kicked off in grand fashion on Monday, December 1, 2003, as the annual Downtown Winter Wonderland celebration visited Atlantic City Outlets - The Walk. To top it off, Santa Claus made a special visit to the city's newest shopping and entertainment complex.

More than 100 cheerful and starry-eyed schoolchildren from the Texas Avenue School and AtlantiCare Day Care Center mobbed 'Ole Saint Nick as he made his entrance. The school children were encouraged to write a letter to Santa and drop it in the "Letters to Santa" mailbox. Santa greeted the happy children and passed out yummy candy canes (right).

The annual Downtown Winter Wonderland celebration continued throughout the month of December at O'Donnell Park for two weekends on Saturday, December 13 and 20. Santa once again was on hand to bring smiles to children's faces, as well as listen to which toys were on their list for Christmas this year.

Local children and their parents spent Saturday, October 25, 2003, having a frightfully fun time at the 5th annual Halloween Haunted Hayride special event in O'Donnell Park (below). Sponsored by the City of Atlantic City, Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, Councilman Dennis Mason, and the merchants and casinos of the Special Improvement District, this year's Halloween trick-or-treatfest featured a little bit of everything for everyone.

Three big inflatable jumpers - one in the form of an obstacle course, the second featuring a giant slide and the third an enclosed jumping castle - kept the dozens of children literally bouncing off of the walls and sliding the day away.

For those who just wanted to take it easy and enjoy the day, pumpkin painting was available for the artistically inclined. And for those with a sweet tooth, which actually was every child in attendance, and as we all know children just love candy, freshly popped popcorn, tons of cavity-forming candy and sweet apple cider was available.

Once again the horse-drawn carriage haunted hayride took everyone on a magical ride throughout O'Donnell Park even as day gave way to night, which made for a spookier environment. The highlight of the evening was the showing of the popular movie, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." Dozens of children gathered in front of the massive inflatable movie screen to take in the action. Unfortunately, after an hour, gusty winds prohibited the movie from running its course. But, for all, it was another successfully spooky and frightfully fun Halloween in O'Donnell Park.