Historic Sask. post office transformed into Christmas castle for yearly tradition

WATCH: Since 2018, the annual Christmas castle has been drawing visitors to the historical post office in Melfort, Saskatchewan.

Since 2018, the annual Christmas castle has been drawing visitors to the historical post office in Melfort, Saskatchewan.

Adeyemi Laosebikan and his wife Foluke Laosebikan co-founded the tradition.

“December of 2017, and we were just driving through downtown Melfort early evening and just saw that the whole place was quiet,” said Adeyemi Laosebikan.

“It was then that the thought came to us that, what could we do to draw traffic?”

• Get the latest news from Saskatchewan, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

The Laosebikans enlisted local volunteers and approached the city about using the historic post-office.

After some back and forth, the city jumped on board with the idea and the castle saw more than 2,500 visitors its first year.

“Two of our sons, Daniel and Peter, were a part of this in the first year,” said Foluke Laosebikan.

“Yemi drove around all of Christmas Day and Christmas Eve, just finding deals for buying the trees.”

Organizers say that more than 100 Christmas trees are currently set up inside the post office.

The Christmas castle is a community gathering space — and a fundraiser.

This year, donations will go to the North Central Healthcare Foundation, the Believe in the Gold childhood cancer foundation, and toward restoring the historic post office.

The project is a team effort. Fifty community volunteers have worked on setting up and running this year’s castle.

Local musicians have also volunteered to perform at the historic post office every evening while the castle is up.

“It’s all about Melfort,” said Mayor Glenn George about the city’s holiday traditions.

“How friendly we are, how much we get together, our volunteers.”

The Melfort Christmas castle is open until Dec 21.