Sweet treats and a chat with Santa part of Fort Mill fun

The oversized shimmering Christmas tree hat atop nine-year-old Eric Dykhuis’ head couldn’t mask the gooey mess on his lips.

None of the other children seemed to care. They had marshmallow and chocolate on their own cheeks and candy cane stickiness on their fingers.

Santa didn’t seem to care either, as the sugared-up children sat in his lap at the annual Candy Cane Hunt at the Anne Springs Close Greenway Dairy Barn.

Kids gather each year at the Dairy Barn to search for mini candy canes hidden under a vast field of crispy leaves. It only takes a few minutes for little fingers to find the sweet treats, so the kids are treated to a cold-weather essential — smores.

When the treats are gone, they climb into Santa and Mrs. Claus’s laps to say how good they have been this year, while parents snap photos with smart phones to send to their grandparents. An elf hands them a coloring book and they skip back down the hill, kicking the leaves along the way.

This story was originally published December 10, 2016 at 7:08 PM with the headline "Sweet treats and a chat with Santa part of Fort Mill fun."