Kick-off the Christmas season and celebrate during the Christmas Around the World Stroll the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Nov. 26th, from 3:00pm – 7:00pm with the Parade of Lights to follow. Businesses are invited to participate by decorating their windows and stores with the Christmas Around the World theme, using the country of their choice as inspiration. Be sure to check out the great sales going on at retail businesses, including those participating in Shop Small Saturday.
The Parade of Lights is another fantastic way that businesses, organizations, and non-profits can contribute to the fun, decorating a float and organizing volunteers to hand out candy during the parade; candy is not allowed to be thrown from the floats. Parade line-up will start at 6:00pm in the Shopko parking lot on the south end of town. It will start at 7:00pm, proceeding north down Central Ave, turning left on 2nd St. NW, and ending in the Reese & Ray's IGA parking lot. To participate in the parade, contact the Sidney Chamber of Commerce at 406-433-1916, and send or fax completed registration forms to Power 95 Radio Station, Attn. Maverick, 120 East Main St., or 406-433-5095 (fax).
The 14th annual Parade of Trees will be having their auction at 6:00pm at the MonDak Heritage Center, 120 3rd Ave SE. Trees are on display from Nov. 22nd – 26th, and the MonDak will open at 10:00am the day of the stroll; be sure to stop in and vote for the Best of Show, People's Choice, Most Creative, and Best Wreath, and show your support for the Boys & Girls Club of Richland County and the MonDak Heritage Center.
There will be a community-wide BINGO game beginning that day, as well. Each BINGO square will have the logo of a participating business and when BINGO players stop into those businesses, they can get that logo stamped. Once the card is complete, with all the squares stamped, they can be turned in at participating retail stores. Be sure to make a donation to the Food Bank Christmas Tree that will be housed at Ribbon & Rail to get that square stamped, and the Sidney – Richland County Library and MonDak Heritage Center are on the card too. The BINGO cards will be available in the Roundup and Sidney Herald newspapers Wednesday, Nov. 23rd, as well as in businesses. The game will run for two weeks, with all completed cards needing to be in by Saturday, Dec.10th. Be sure to take some time to look around each business and do some Christmas shopping while you're there! The winning BINGO card will be drawn the week of Dec. 12th and the winner will receive $425 in Chamber Bucks.
Businesses will have vendors/side-walk sales outside of their stores from 4:00pm – 6:00pm, which is a great opportunity for non-profits. If you are a non-profit business that would like to be a vendor, please contact the business that you would like to be in front of to get their approval and work out the details. Agreement forms can be sent or faxed to Maverick at Power 95.
Centre Theatre will be showing a free movie at 1:00pm, and the Sidney-Richland County Library will be showing Merry Christmas Charlie Brown at 3:00pm. The library will be open until 6:00pm and Santa and Mrs. Claus will be there to listen to children's wish lists, so be sure to join them for some festive fun and get a lollipop from Mrs. Claus.
A new addition to this year's stroll is free public transportation, which is being provided courtesy of Richland County Transportation. Bus stops will be located in the Reynolds parking lot at Fox Run, the old Stockman Bank Parking lot off of Main St., in the parking lot east of the Sidney – Richland County Library, and in front of Central School. Bus stops will be denoted with signs and cones. Public transportation is being provided as a convenient way for Christmas strollers to take in all of the activities that day, get into all of their favorite businesses, and the best part is that it is a completely free service!
Special thanks go out to Richland County Transportation, the Sidney – Richland County Library, Centre Theatre, all of the participating businesses, organizations, and vendors, the property owners who provided bus stops, Kory Lassey who designed the BINGO cards and logo, and all of the volunteers!
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