Though stores have already been in the “spirit” for a while, now that Thanksgiving has passed, our communities are turning their attention to the Christmas season.
Two of those — Brunswick and Bath — have celebrations planned for this weekend.
In Brunswick, the Brunswick Downtown Association’s annual tree lighting ceremony is being done in conjunction with its Small Business Saturday.
“We changed it this year,” said Missy Grillo, the BDA’s events coordinator. “The tree lighting used to be on Friday, but we decided to make it a larger communityinvolved event and bring more people downtown to the businesses as well.”
There will be free horse and carriage rides from 1-5 p.m., hot chocolate and cookies, and visits with Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman from 3-5 p.m.
“These are the traditional events. We always provide a visit with Santa and Frosty for the kids to be involved,” Grillo said. “We have the community children’s group doing caroling; that’s from 3- 5 p.m. as well. All of it will be by the gazebo on the Mall.”
After visiting with the children present, Santa will call for the lighting of the tree at 5 p.m.
“He gives the countdown,” Grillo said.
Small Business Saturday is designed to showcase the businesses in downtown Brunswick.
“It’s part of the Shop Small campaign to support the small, local businesses downtown,” Grillo said. “Some of the businesses are doing sales and discount specials; they’ll be giving away promotional merchandise.”
The BDA, she said, has teamed up with American Express’s Shop Small campaign to provide the downtown businesses with canvas bags and other promotional material to be given away on Saturday.
“The material is given to businesses downtown, to turn around and hand out to customers shopping in their stores,” Grillo said. “Every business will have a different sale to promote their business.
“We’re always delighted in how involved the downtown businesses get in the events the BDA has,” she added. “We’re lucky.”
For more details about Saturday’s events, visit brunswickdowntown.org.
In Bath, festivities kick off at 11 a.m. with ornament making in the Patten Free Library Community Room, which will take place until 3 p.m. The ornaments will be used to decorate the Christmas tree at the City Park gazebo.
That’s when Santa Claus will make his entrance on an antique fire truck, appearing at 3 p.m. to light the tree. There, children will receive a jingle bell and parade down Front Street to Bath City Hall.
At City Hall, children will be able to visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus, and Santa’s elves will make a special appearance. Cookies and punch also will be served.
Bath also will be highlighting its local businesses for Small Business Saturday.
For more information about the events in Bath, call 442-7291 or go to www.visitbath.com.
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