It was a Merry Christmas this year for Ryan and Lindsey Habiger of Bushton. Ryan had the winning ticket during the Dec. 21 drawing for $500 as part of the Ellsworth County Independent-Reporter’s Christmas Cash Giveaway in downtown Ellsworth.

“It was kind of a surprise,” Ryan said.“We had a tractor repaired at (Kan Equip) and they gave us the tickets.”

Around 40 people attended the drawing in front of Classy Lady Boutique.

“If there had been more people there I probably would not have won,” Ryan added.

In addition to the $500 grand prize, Ryan also won two of the 10 $50 cash prizes drawn during the event. The other winners were Lindsey Habiger, who won two of the $50 drawings, Vera Ehrlich of Wilson, Candace Halfhill of Ellsworth, Kurt Krupp of Ellsworth, Myra Habiger of Bushton, Norman Habiger of Bushton, and Roxanne Lucero of Ellsworth.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Lindsey said. “We weren’t expecting it.”

The Habigers plan to save some of their Christmas cash and pay bills with the rest.

“I was very surprised,” Krupp said.“I totally wasn’t expecting to win.”

Krupp plans to put his Christmas cash into savings.

“I’ll probably spend it back in the community,” he added.

“I was kind of surprised,” Ehrlich said.“I thought I’d made the trip for nothing. I almost didn’t go, but I’m glad I came.”

Ehrlich said she was disappointed at how few people attended the drawing, since you needed to be present to win.

“I’ve been to this drawing before where the street was full,” she said.

Independent-Reporter publisher Linda Mowery-Denning said she also would have liked a larger crowd.

“But we haven’t done this in a number of years, so I’m hoping it’s a matter of getting people excited about it again. Plus next year I think we need to add a stronger digital component to the drawing. Shopping habits have changed since we did this before,” she said.

Lending to the holiday atmosphere of the event were Anita Hoffhines, who sang Christmas carols with those in attendance before the drawing. In addition, Santa Claus himself made a special trip from the North Pole to announce the number on the tickets as he drew them from his red velvet bag.

Sponsors of the Christmas Cash Giveaway were F&M Drug LLC, Robson’s Card & Gift Shop, Nex-Tech Wireless, Citizens State Bank & Trust Company, Gene’s Heartland Foods, KanEquip, Ampride and H&B Communications.