Beginning to look a little like Christmas

With Thanksgiving behind us, Christmas is just around the corner. This year has flown by.

It’s beginning to feel a bit like Christmas. Many of us will come out of our Thanksgiving food comas and haul out the Christmas decorations to deck the halls this weekend.

I bought a bunch of lights for the outside of the house after Christmas last year. I am not sure how we’re going to get those up though minus an adequate ladder for the second story.

I have neighbors whose Christmas lights went up the day after Halloween. Some people think that’s too early, but I don’t. I wouldn’t mind Christmas lights year-round.

I don’t care for the stores packing in Christmas things before Halloween is over. I remember last year, Fred’s sort of skirted the issue with a black Christmas tree. I guess it was a Halloween tree, but I don’t think it was for sale, just a display.

Though I have heard of people having black Halloween trees. I wonder if they just smoothly transition into the Christmas holiday season with it or take it down and put up a green one later.

Plans for the upcoming Christmas parade are underway. We should start seeing the decorations go up around the square. I think the big Christmas tree may go on the lot where Rick’s Electronics was.

During the event, there will be carriage rides and pictures with Frozen characters Elsa and Anna in that area also.

Although Big Brothers and Big Sisters will soon close, the organization will still host pictures with Santa in the Bistro Courtyard. BBBS Executive Director Christine Castle said they plan to continue that tradition each year.

The parade seems to get better each year and I hope the addition of new parade competition categories will increase participation.

The Chamber of Commerce is hosting its Reindeer Games with tickets being stamped all over town for entries. Drop your tickets off at the hopper on the north side of the square before the parade begins and the drawing will take place after the parade.

Again this year, the Chamber will award winners with tender they can spend with the participating retailers of their choice.

One thing that has often been commented on in these parade planning discussions is merchant participation. Opening up their doors in the downtown area before and possibly after the parade would really add to the event. For retailers, it’s a great opportunity for families to come in and window shop together in anticipation of the big gift-giving holiday.

I’ve enjoyed other parades where this occurs and it’s fun to go in a visit with people in the stores, maybe have a cup of hot chocolate or a cookie, and see what’s out there for gift ideas.

It doesn’t have to be just traditional gift-selling retailers either. I’ve gone into title offices, a cable company and dry cleaners just to see how they had decorated the place, and what kind of cookies or treats they were offering, of course. I remember there used to be a cabinet maker with a storefront on the square in Graham that would load all of the display countertops with Chex mix, peanut brittle, fudge, homemade cookies, cakes and more. They pulled out all the stops and the place was packed every year until they moved their office to their production site.

The idea behind the Reindeer Games is to encourage folks to shop local and I believe it’s fairly successful in doing so. But I think our downtown merchants are not taking advantage of what’s essentially a captive audience in the hundreds that come out for the parade. Getting folks to “look local” is half the battle in the shop local endeavor. Perhaps they are just underestimating the power of free homemade baked goods.