ODESSA, Fla. — It’s not all that often you can see gingerbread houses next to a massive pig.

What You Need To Know

  • Raprager Family Farms is celebrating its annual Christmas Festival; hours below

  • The festival comes following a difficult fall because of damage from Hurricane Milton

  • According to officials with the farm, that storm and the closure that came from it resulted in the farm losing about 40 percent of expected revenue

  • Despite that setback, things are in full swing for the Christmas season, and folks at the farm are optimistic about this event and future holidays

But Raprager Family Farms is combining their love of the holidays with their love of farm life in their annual festival.

“There’s really nothing more you could ask for,” said Kendall Rickert, operations manager for the farm.

They’re in full swing right now, celebrating Christmas the only way a farm can — with lots of lights and animals and holly hay bales abound.

But it’s been quite a journey to get to this celebratory mindset.

“We’re definitely still kind of picking up pieces,” Rickert said. “You know, if you walk around the property, some pieces around kind of look like, you know, they’ve had some damage and things like that.”

Rickert was talking about the damage they got from Hurricane Milton.

While the Christmas festivities are going off without a hitch, their fall festival dealt with a lot of problems.

“The property definitely took on some damage,” Rickert said, “especially the animal enclosures and things like that.”

They also lost power, forcing them to cancel several nights in October.

Halloween is their busiest time of year. According to folks at the farm, they lost 40 percent of their expected revenue because of Milton.

“It was very difficult for everybody,” Rickert said. “But again, you know, we have an awesome staff, and everybody was just ready to come pick up and keep moving along.”

Even though there are still some reminders of Milton at the farm, the Christmas spirit is still here with a mixture of the country and Kris Kringle.

When night falls, the lights and the joy are all you see and Rickert wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It just really gives you the freedom to kind of, you know, dress it up and dress it down and do whatever you want with it,” she said.

And no storm is going to take that away.

This is the farm’s last weekend of its Christmas event before Christmas Day.

It is open Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.