Ho, Ho, Ho away we go… 2020 Downtown Christmas Open House ushers in new Christmas season
Published 2:31 pm Monday, November 9, 2020
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders The team at Simple Blessings were excited to see a good turnout for this year's Christmas Open House and the end results in their closing till.
Photo Contributed by Rita Russell Santa visits with Nehemiah and Evvie through the glass store front at Simple Blessings on Sunday while enjoying a cone of ice cream. Santa would have loved to have been close to the children but wanted to make sure that he social distanced as Christmas isn't far away.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Things in downtown Elizabethton have quickly swapped from a fall theme to Christmas as an Downtown Christmas Open House was held on Sunday with a good turnout to visit local merchants.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders After dealing with COVID for most of 2020, local merchants were estatic to welcome shoppers to the Christmas Open House in downtown Elizabethton on Sunday.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders While many spent time shopping for Christmas, others just took the time to enjoy some of the many refreshments available. These two found ice cream to their liking on a day that felt more like early summer than late fall.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Just one of the many shoppers to the Open House at downtown merchants looks over some potential Christmas gift ideas.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders The ringing of cash registers was a welcome sign to area merchants who are hoping for a good Christmas season after battling through COVID for much of 2020.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders The 2020 Downtown Christmas Open House brought out shoppers of all ages as these two young men look over a collection of pocket knives while their parents shop throughout the store.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders With a gorgeous sunny afternoon and mild temperatures on tap, many families took the opportunity to visit the downtown merchants for the 2020 Christmas Open House which kicked off the 2020 Christmas shopping season for the local merchants.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Aisles were filled with shoppers in many stores in downtown Elizabethton for the 2020 Christmas Open House.
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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR STAFF
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
There is nothing to make one forget about how tough the year 2020 has been than to start looking ahead to the Christmas holiday.
Even though there is another big holiday in Thanksgiving around the corner, once Halloween has officially passed many Americans shift their focus to Christmas as television begins loading its programming with Christmas movies and Black Friday specials are extended way before reaching that first big shopping day of the year as merchants try to get ahead of the curve especially during COVID.
On Sunday in downtown Elizabethton, the merchants welcomed a new Christmas season by hosting an Open House featuring refreshments, door prizes, Christmas sales, and music on a day that couldn’t have been more perfect with temperatures in the mid-70s and a beautiful day to greet shoppers.
More importantly, it gave local merchants the opportunity to try and at least get a leg up on what has been a tough year financially as COVID had many businesses shut down and has kept people away from areas where large groups of people normally assemble.
Rita Russell with Simple Blessings was one of those merchants who were very happy to open her doors on a Sunday to those who came into town for the event.
“We have tried to maintain the number of people who have come in to ensure social distancing but it has been steady pretty much all day,” said Russell. “Right now we are where we were last year for our sales today which is great.”
Russell and her staff had Santa set up in the front glass display of the store to provide an opportunity for children to share what they wanted for Christmas in a non-traditional way.
Instead of sitting on Santa’s lap, Santa communicated with the children via a walkie talkie as he just couldn’t afford to get sick with Christmas right around the corner and knowing Mrs. Claus wouldn’t be very happy if he came back to the North Pole with COVID.
Each store in the downtown appeared to be having good foot traffic for the Open House which began at 1 pm and concluded at 5 pm as families took advantage of the afternoon to spend time together getting some ideas for Christmas gifts for family.
One shopper was overheard saying that she had decided to buy all of her gifts locally this year to support the businesses in and around Carter County.
Cash registers seemed to be ringing up and down the street throughout the afternoon with several taking time to enjoy some sweet treats like hot chocolate, cider, cookies, and an always-favorite – ice cream.
For the merchants, they hope that Sunday will be a sign of things to come for the upcoming holiday as local residents will choose to purchase their Christmas gifts with their hometown merchants to help offset some of the loss they have experienced throughout the current year with the pandemic.
