The 2024 Adult Stocking Stroll is set for Saturday in downtown Festus and Crystal City, and organizers once again hope the annual event helps jumpstart holiday season sales.
The Historic Tanglefoot Association, with the help of a grant from the Festus Tourism Commission, is putting on the Adult Stocking Stroll, which will run from noon to 5 p.m. on Main Street in Festus and Bailey Road in Crystal City.
The event focuses on shopping and dining at the downtown businesses.
“It will be similar to year’s past, a shopping kind of event,” said Melody Yesberg, an organizer and the owner of Celebrations Unlimited in Festus. “Schneider Park in Festus will be decorated. We also will have carolers in the street and roaming in and out of stores.”
As part of the event, a game will be included in which participants who complete the assignment get the chance to win “hundreds of dollars of gift cards” as prizes through a drawing, Yesberg said.
“They pick up a game card at Main Key Realty (114 E. Main St., Festus),” she said. “Main Key Realty is the starting point and the ending point. There will be a map and a listing for every business participating in the game.
“At every participating business, they give out treats and also put a sticker from the store on the game card. When they get all the stickers, they return the cards to Main Key Realty.
“Following the Adult Stocking Stroll, we hold a drawing. Each participating business donates a $25 gift card, so there will be three $200 gift card (packets) as prizes.”
The drawings take place in the days following the Adult Stocking Stroll.
“We have about 25 participating this year,” she said. “That’s a couple more than last year.”
She said the Adult Stocking Stroll usually draws a healthy number of shoppers.
“I think we gave out more than 600 game cards last year,” she said.
The event will be held rain or shine.
For more information, visit the Tanglefoot Events Facebook page.