Subscribe to this blog 
Is your community on your Christmas list?
November 19th, 2009 by Mike Knutson
We don’t often think of giving Christmas presents to our communities unless we are considering a donation to a community foundation or program. A recent post from the Strom Center at Dickenson State University reminded me how important it is for rural communities to create activities that encourage residents to shop locally this holiday season. In many ways individuals who commit to buying their Christmas gifts locally are giving a gift to the community.
Specifically, the Strom Center post highlights a “shopping celebration” they are sponsoring in Dickinson called “Ladies Night Out.”
Featuring Downtown businesses, Ladies Night Out offers an eventful evening for all ages. Over twenty downtown stores will be offering a special discount/promotion during this event. A majority of the stores will be hosting refreshments and food sampling. Various downtown professional businesses are sponsoring the event to make the night spectacular. Downtown bars and restaurants will be offering different specials to complete the night.”
Events like Ladies Night Out are a part of a burgeoning “shop local” effort many communities are working on this holiday season. They provide the entertainment necessary to keep residents from driving to larger communities for their shopping.
Howard, SD created a similar event named Hometown Holidays back in 2001. Geared more towards families, it offers a lighted parade, horse carriage rides, Santa Clause and much more. It’s a pretty big event for a town of 1000 residents.
Reflecting on these two events has caused me to wonder what else small, rural towns are doing this holiday season? With this in mind, I conducted a quick internet search, and found a few more innovative activities, which sounded fun:
- In Centerville, IA (pop. 5924), their holiday event includes a “Holiday Sampler Open House” where people can taste holiday foods at various businesses and pick up the recipes of those foods they like.
- Millford, OH (pop. 6,284) deserves mention here if for no other reasons than they have been hosting holiday festival for 25 years. But I also think it’s neat that they’ve created their own website for the event (www.hometown-holidays.com), and they offer antique fire engine rides.
- With a population of 54,548, Petaluma, CA is a bit large to call rural, but I love their idea of hosting a Lighted Boat Parade. It’s definitely problematic to host an event like this in a northern climate, and I’m not sure how it would stimulate local spending. But watching this video just makes the event look like a lot of fun.
There are undoubtedly a lot of other great ideas happening in rural communities. And sharing them will help other communities make the most if their holiday season. If you know of innovative holiday event, share them in the comment section below.
Photo Credit: David R. Carroll - Flickr
Tags: Buy Local, North Dakota, Strom Center
Posted in Economic Development, In the News, Rural | Comments (
4 )
November 19th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
In Bozeman, MT we have the Christmas Stroll the first Saturday of December starting at 4:30. Santa makes his way through town to the historic Main Street. Everyone is encouraged to be a part of the parade in which people are singing carols and lighting holiday lights. Businesses are open late, and there is food and fun for people of all ages. Prizes are given away and special deals are to be had. They also have horse drawn wagon rides and pictures with Santa.
You can check out this and other Downtown Bozeman events, like Winter Crazy Days and Wild West Winterfest, at their website: http://www.downtownbozeman.org/events.php#8
November 19th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Six thousand people — that’s a lot of people signing Christmas carols. Looks like Bozeman has several other fun events going on during the winter as well. Goes to show that you can’t let a little snow get ya down.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I’ve been doing some research on local shopping campaigns and found one that I really love and dream of having in Deuel County, SD… or maybe a larger regional area someday.
The program is held in Northeast Ohio (NEO), and it’s called ‘I Buy NEO.’ It’s a rewards program (which in my opnion makes a lot of sense for communities like ours that are located close to the amentities of larger cities, and communities where people might not naturally be as ‘loyal’ to local merchants).
It’s a complex system, it works with cards that are swiped at the point of sale (not credit).
The system tracks the purchase, retailers can set their own rebates. The rebates come in three parts: 1) cash reward, 2) support to local non-profit or school of your choice, and 3) support to the local shopping campaign. Very interesting, it’s complex and expensive I’m sure, but I think it would be perfect here.
Check out their website. http://www.ibuyneo.com/index.asp
Makes me wonder if there might be scope for a regional local shopping project similar to Northeast Ohio in South Dakota someday??? I definately think it would make a difference in many of our rural communities, and give people a tangible reason to shop locally.
November 20th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Mike,
My hometown of Madison hosts a six week event leading up to Christmas. In order to encourage local shopping, they make punch cards available to participating merchants who punch your purchase values as you spend. Once the card is full, you can drop it at any store, and your name is entered into a weekly drawing.
Nothing real innovative here, but I think it reinforces the same idea: a thanks from merchants who are glad to have people shopping at home!