It may be Thanksgiving on Thursday, but the Christmas season has already begun. For weeks, department and local stores have played Christmas music and strung twinkly lights for their holiday displays. And now, the St. Nick’s Christmas Club has its adoption book available in the Newton Daily News office.

The Christmas Club has served Jasper County for a handful of years, beginning as a small group in the late ’80s.

“It had humble beginnings,” said organizer Kathy Doyle. “A couple gals in town who didn’t have a whole lot extra themselves would go around with a red wagon every year and pick up canned goods and stuff from people’s gardens and take them around town to people who had needs. It was a food-based thing in the beginning.”