Downtown Cleveland – Saturday, November 13 & Sunday November 14
By Angela Rogalski
The Bolivar Bullet
The second weekend in November, downtown Cleveland will be celebrating the arrival of the Christmas season with Holiday Open House. Cade Holder, director of Community Programs at the Cleveland-Bolivar County Chamber of Commerce invites everyone to attend.
“Holiday Open House is going to be a two-day event that we want everyone to come out and help us celebrate,” Holder said. “It begins Saturday November 13 from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and continues Sunday November 14 from 1:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. We hope everyone will visit our downtown businesses to sip, shop, and enjoy all that downtown Cleveland has to offer.”
Holder said this gives people a chance to Christmas shop locally and enjoy the downtown merchants and all they have to offer.
“With the extended Sunday hours, people can get out of church, go to lunch and then come and spend a little time downtown shopping and checking off items on their Christmas lists,” she added, “This event has been held in downtown Cleveland for a very long time and on top of shopping, people will be able to see the many beautiful Christmas window decorations the merchants will have displayed. We’ll be holding the Christmas Window Decoration contest, which is hosted by Team Cleveland, an entity of the Chamber. The announcements for who will win that competition will take place at the kick-off for 50 Nights of Lights, and that ceremony will happen at dusk on Saturday, November 13.”
The 50 Nights of Lights will be along the downtown greenstrip and feature over 100,000 lights that will transform the Crosstie Walking Trail into a Winter Wonderland that the whole family can enjoy.
“On Saturday November 13, local Deep Roots group “Variety” will be playing some fun tunes from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. and during the ceremony, the winner of the Window Decorating contest will be announced and we’ll have a countdown for the lighting of the Christmas Tree. All of this will be broadcast live on the walking trail and on WDSW The Trail, a broadcast service of Delta State University and we’re very excited about that. Also, we’re working on getting food vendors downtown, so that people can get something great to eat and just enjoy their community during this festive season.”
Holder stressed the entire community is invited to come out and enjoy the festivities.
“We just want to encourage everyone in Cleveland and surrounding areas to attend the event,” she said. “Our merchants are really going all-out this season. And shopping local is so important. We want everyone to know that they can find that perfect Christmas gift right in the heart of their own downtown. We hope everyone will consider downtown Cleveland for their Christmas purchases this year.”
For more information, visit: www.clevelandmainstreet.com and www.50nightsoflights.com