By Patrick Martin, Leader editorial page editor.
Published in the Nov. 29 Leader newspaper
Many of us shake our heads at the first sighting of holiday promotion. Somehow, it’s not quite the same reaction as spotting the first robin of spring.
Like the robins, which now can be spotted here pretty much year-round, the holiday season also has expanded, though it’s not quite made it to 12-month status. It used to be Thanksgiving was the traditional kickoff. Even with that holiday coming as early this year (Nov. 22) as the calendar permits, it still didn’t come close to being the start of the season.
The new rule seems to be, “Once Halloween is over, get out of the way!”
We at Leader World Headquarters are more traditionalists than trend-setters on this one. Our big Christmas event is this Friday, Nov. 30, well after most people have polished off the last of the Thanksgiving turkey leftovers.
That’s not the only way we are out of step. We actually use the word “Christmas” in naming the event. Imagine! It’s not the Winter Festival or the Holiday Hoop-De-Doo.
It’s the Leader Christmas Preview and it starts Friday night at 6 p.m. at the Best Western in Festus, 1200 West Gannon Drive. Admission is free.
We wouldn’t be true to our old-fashioned ways if we didn’t mention the building used to be the Holiday Inn.
The Preview is an attempt to make it convenient for local shoppers to use their holiday budget where so many claim they want to spend it – with local merchants.
Last year, the event’s first, we drew several hundred shoppers. I saw no jostling, fistfights over doorbusters, or sprints to get the last one of anything. The spacious atrium at the Best Western left plenty of room for all.
Visitors enjoyed the vendors, all of whom of were encouraged to bring their best Christmas gift ideas. They also liked the strolling singers and Santa’s hearty ho-ho-ho’s (the audio kind, not the Hostess kind – we don’t want to start a riot here).
One of the more popular booths, that of pinball machine expert Troy North of Top Score Gamerooms, will return this year and visitors again can try out his games. He won the prize last year for the booth with the most rings, dings, whistles and whoops.
This year, though, North has competition.
Though it really doesn’t have a booth, the Jefferson County and Southern Model Railroad Club is almost assured of winning the woo-woo title for 2012.
The local club is setting up a 20-by-28-foot model train layout that is bound to be a magnet for boys and girls of all ages. That train exhibit will have its own room adjacent to the exhibitors in the atrium.
The Christmas Preview is not all about boy toys. See, we’re so old-fashioned we’re not even worried about wandering into the minefield of gender stereotypes.
We’ll have jewelry, we’ll have cooking and catering, salons and spas. Visitors will get decorating ideas, food ideas and the chance to buy locally produced wines.
There will be samples from the foodies and the Leader will have an attendance prize drawing for four home plate loge tickets to a 2013 Cardinal game.
One of the goals of the Preview is to allow shoppers to avoid the weeks- or months-long slog to the yuletide finish line. How great would it be to go to a single, three-hour event, with your list in hand, and finish the task in one pleasant evening?
Then it would be possible to dance the Superior Dance of someone who is super-organized (or borderline obsessive) and has all the Christmas shopping done by Dec. 1. You know the kind – they probably alphabetize their ornaments in the storage box.
But the main attraction is a chance to support local merchants. These are people who spend their working lives looking up one steep hill after another, but somehow they beat the odds and the naysayers to have a successful business.
They almost always provide excellent service and responsiveness compared with the so-called big box stores, but often face the discouragement of watching a stream of vehicles pass them by, headed for those big boxes.
The reason we started the Preview was to provide an all-in-one, fun evening for readers, but also to help those small merchants who make the Leader possible by supporting us with their advertising.
It’s a big old Circle of Life thing with us.
So circle on by yourself on Friday night from 6-9 p.m. Play a little pinball, check out the model trains or the hundreds of gift ideas on display. Sample the food.
We’ll have Santa and his ho-ho-ho’s, but no Ho-Ho’s.
Or Twinkies.
