Ranch Nite Wednesday has residents coming back for seconds

Ranch Nite Wednesdays at Waterside Place attracts residents for all kinds of reasons. 

On Dec. 11, the Saxton family attended the weekly event to get the perfect photo with Santa in front of the towering Christmas tree by the pavilion. Meanwhile, Chris and Christine Salicco arrived in search of an amazing chicken teriyaki dish. 

“We’re looking for this one truck, but we don’t know the name of it,” Christine Salicco said. “We’ll find it eventually. We’ll have to come back every week and keep walking around.”

Lakewood Ranch rotates the vendors to keep the experience fresh, and during December, Santa makes his rounds. 

Santa needs elves, so Summer Saxton dressed the whole family in white collars and pointy hats. 

“We always go really big on Halloween,” she said. “This year, I thought we could just do it again in December, and it’s like double Halloween.” 

She had to make a special black elf costume for her son Archer because his Elf on a Shelf "Pickles" wears black.

Pickles is a little bit naughty and a little bit nice. Saxton transformed a pair of black pajamas because Archer didn’t want to be any elf other than Pickles. 

The hardest part of getting the family into elf gear was convincing her husband Phillip to wear a pair of solid gold tights.

"He knows what it means to me," Saxton said. "He helped me scratch my itch."