We have mentioned in several other posts that we live in a fantastic little trail town. We have an active association for local small businesses that does an amazing job at planning community activities. You can read about our Trail Town Festival from this summer here. They also organize an Easter event, Trunk-or-Treat, and Holiday Trail Town Festival. Small town American life is really awesome when you have a vibrant community.
The events that our business alliance plans serve three important purposes. These are; to promote our local businesses so that they can flourish, to make our community a pleasant place to live, and to promote tourism to our area. As we work toward each of these goals, they reinforce each other and make each one easier to achieve. As the community becomes a lovely place to live, that attracts tourism, and these in turn help the local businesses flourish. We have the privilege as TRAIL FAMILY to be part of this process.
The Holiday Trail Town Festival consists of many events and involves most of our Main Street businesses. It starts with story time hosted by the library and one of the local banks. The girls love this because they have a personal relationship with our librarians. That is one more wonderful aspect of living in a small town.
After story time, each child gets a “passport” for all the stops along Main Street. Each business involved has an activity for children to complete and get a stamp in their passport. These include making an ornament, building a graham cracker “gingerbread” house, cookie decorating, etc. The passport then becomes a raffle ticket for a holiday basket of prizes.
Our children look forward to the gingerbread house every year. It’s great that there are some consistent components that everyone can anticipate. We hope that as people from all around come to enjoy some winter activities on the trail such as snowmobiling and snowshoeing, that they will also find some enjoyable traditions in our town.
Later in the evening, everyone convenes in the middle of town. We have the tree lighting, raffle drawing, and caroling by the high school choir. To complete the festivities, the Historical Society hosts the school band and chorus concert in the museum. The whole afternoon is a wonderful time that accomplishes all the goals we set out to accomplish for our town.
How can you start or promote this type of event in your trail town? If you don’t live in a trail town, where is the closest one to visit and enjoy this type of event?
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