Hundreds of people packed Talbot Street in St. Thomas, Ont. Friday night for an annual event geared at driving people downtown to shop. “Tonight is ‘Light Up Talbot’’ said Grayden Laing, president of the St. Thomas Downtown Development Board (DDB). “It’s an event that was started by Suzanne Faris (St. Thomas business owner), and then she graciously said, ‘Hey Downtown Development Board, it is getting a little bit big, do you guys want to work on that?’. We said, ‘absolutely.’” The evening featured the lightning of the tree at City Hall, elementary school choirs, photos with Santa Claus, horse drawn wagon rides, live music and entertainment, a warming station and contests for the best decorated storefront. “Tonight is kind of our kickoff to Christmas in downtown St. Thomas,” said Sarah Lynch, downtown and development engagement officer with the St. Thomas Economic Development Corporation (EDC). “It’s always to celebrate our downtown and the businesses that make our community so special. Giving back to them a little gift for what they give to us all the time.” The EDC has been working with the DDB for a couple of years now on this annual event. “It’s just been amazing to see how much this event has grown under Sarah’s leadership, just to really make sure that these people who are shopping for Christmas know that downtown St. Thomas has what they’re looking for,” said Sean Dyke, CEO of the EDC. “We all can shop online, but it’s really great to keep it local if we can and now we have that opportunity with events like this.” Outside City Hall, mayor Joe Preston along with city councillors were greeting visitors and handing out goodies. “We’ve really been pushing the safety of being downtown,” said Preston. “The downtown is fuller than we’ve had in a long time. Take a look, when you put a lot of people in it, it sure does look good. Here comes Santa on the fire truck, and we are making sure Santa is safe too.” Local businesses have been thriving during events like this one and the recent Pumpkin Prowl which brought thousands downtown on Halloween. “It is one of the biggest things that happens around the year and we look forward to it,” said Aurora Alcocer, owner of Taco House on Talbot St. “We welcome new customers and we welcome the community. It’s a great idea to have this type of events, especially when it’s the holiday season. It just gives opportunity to a lot of people to get to know our business, to actually try our food and be here for the first time.” The DDB has heard from a lot of businesses downtown that it is difficult to make ends meet. “We need to be able to get people downtown to support the businesses,” said Laing. “If they can come in here and they can see how amazing some of our shops are, hopefully they’ll come down tonight and they’ll come back again throughout the holiday season looking for that special gift to buy for someone they love.” With six weeks to go until Christmas many festive events including holiday markets are getting underway. London held its Santa Claus Parade Saturday, and the Hyde Park and Argyle Santa Claus Parades are still to come. Over the next couple of weeks there are more than a dozen Christmas parades in Elgin and Middlesex County.
