Pincher Creek’s inaugural Hometown Holiday Fest, a collaboration between the Town of Pincher Creek and Pincher Creek and District Chamber of Commerce, is quickly shaping up to become a popular local holiday tradition.

Set to take place Friday, Nov. 29, the event promises to be a memorable kickoff to the holiday season, packed with activities for everyone. 

The event builds upon the long-standing tradition of the Parade of Lights, which has been a staple of Pincher Creek’s holiday celebrations, as the town recognized the opportunity to expand the festivities into a larger community event.

“The Town of Pincher Creek has always hosted the Parade of Lights, but we felt like we wanted to create more of a festive event for the evening, not just the parade,” says Rhonda Oczkowski, the town’s recreation programmer. 

“It just made sense to partner with the chamber to help encourage downtown businesses to participate.”

The Hometown Holiday Fest aims to be not just an event, but also a celebration of Pincher Creek’s community spirit and its local businesses. For the chamber, it’s also an opportunity to further unite the community and streamline local holiday events.

“There’s been a little confusion in past years about which events the chamber hosts versus the town,” says Stacy Benson, chamber manager.

“This year, we decided to combine forces, bringing together the Parade of Lights, late-night shopping and more, to encourage people to stick around, hang out and shop local.” 

Main Street will close to vehicles from 5 to 9 p.m., transforming the downtown core into a festive gathering space for families to wander, enjoy fire bowls and soak in the holiday charm. Families are invited to gather around fires while businesses stream festive holiday music to set the tone.

At 6 p.m., local musical duo Pat and Heather Case will perform live on the OK Tire Stage at the Provincial Building plaza. Glow sticks will be handed out near the stage before the Parade of Lights to brighten the nights of local youth.

Pat and Heather will pause their performance when the Parade of Lights is set to get underway. Floats will go down from Ranchland Mall toward Main Street around 6:30. 

Adorned with twinkling lights and festive decor, the floats are sure to dazzle onlookers as they make their way down Main Street. The parade will be capped off with Santa Claus making his grand entrance on a fire truck.

The Parade of Lights will end around 7 p.m. Santa will make his way to the Annex building, where children can visit him and take photos. Donations to the local food bank, while not required, are greatly encouraged during the meet-and-greet.

While Santa is over at the Annex, live music with Pat and Heather will resume following the parade until around 8:30 p.m.   

Beyond kicking off the holiday season, encouraging local shopping is another key focus of the event. The Black Friday shopping event will feature late-night sales and festive storefronts to make holiday shopping a special experience. 

Many stores across town, particularly on Main Street, will remain open or reopen during the late hours post-parade to ensure that folks get a chance to score some great deals on local goodies.

“We’re creating an event where people can hang out, enjoy the parade and then visit shops while soaking in the holiday atmosphere,” Stacy says.

Two seasonal contests are running concurrently with the event, both designed to incentivize people to do their Christmas shopping in the community.

Shootin’ the Breeze kicked off its ninth annual Shop Local for Christmas campaign last week. Customers can enter with traditional entry forms or by scanning a QR code while shopping at participating businesses to access the new quick-entry form.

This promotion also includes several contests within the contest for additional chances to win great prizes. Entries are accepted until Dec. 28, with the draws on New Year’s Eve.

The chamber’s Holiday Passport Campaign began Nov. 22 and runs through Jan. 1. The campaign allows shoppers to collect stamps from participating businesses for a chance to win prizes, encouraging residents to keep their shopping local.

The stamps are based on dollars spent and provide a means to gauge local spending. 

“In 2022, we got almost a million dollars over the six weeks, which was really exciting,” Stacy says.

Both Rhonda and Stacy hope the Holiday Fest will become a cherished annual tradition.

“The goal is to create a family-oriented event to bring people out, kick off the Christmas season, and encourage them to explore and shop downtown,” Rhonda says.

“I think it will hopefully encourage a sense of community with lots of families coming out, moving around, enjoying the fire bowls and seeing what our local businesses have to offer.”

Stacy echoes this sentiment.

“When you can combine efforts like this, it can just create a bigger, better and even more magical event for the community,” she says.

With Hometown Holiday Fest shaping up to be a great holiday event, residents are encouraged to come downtown to experience live music, warm drinks by the fire bowls, the popular Parade of Lights and some late-night shopping fun.

“Bundle up for the weather, and hopefully we see everyone out there,” Rhonda says.

For more details, visit www.pincherchamber.ca/events/hometown-holiday-fest.