Lima residents visit a local business for last year’s Downtown Lima Holiday Festival
LIMA — Local businesses will once again be participating in Downtown Lima, Inc.’s Holiday Festival this year.
Betsy Billingsley, Executive Director of Downtown Lima, said that Lima residents and visitors will have plenty of chances to participate in the event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday with all of the holiday festivities organized around town.
“The atmosphere will be festive,” she said. “And it all adds up to the ONU Holiday Spectacular at 2 at the Civic Center so it’s just a really great way to bring the family out and create memories. And you can take the RTA trolley to each location for free.”
First, Santa will head to The Meeting Place on Market Street for pictures all day. Over 12 locations downtown will have different kids’ activities, including Metro Center, Kohn’s Money Vault, ArtSpace/Lima, the Ohio Theatre and Joey’s Subs.
“Joey’s is welcoming the Grinch and Our Town Roast will also have Else from ‘Frozen’ and then you can do a little shopping at Pea of Sweetness, which will have some fun kids activities too,” Billingsley said. “And Alter Ego Comics will have a local graphic artist in store so that will be something really cool for the kids.”
Billingsley added that she is looking forward to getting the chance to participate in cookie decorating.
“So we haven’t done that for a little while and Miss Mel’s Bakery is giving us some wonderful cookies for the kids to stop by Wingate to decorate,” she said. “And they can decorate them and eat them or take them home. We’re really looking forward to spending some time doing that.”
It is all a part of driving the community downtown to celebrate the holidays.
“We’re dedicated to letting people know what we have to offer down here,” Billingsley said. “It’s really exciting to open our doors and show everybody what’s happening at places in the Central District like Touch of Europe and Winans, which are both new locations. What better time to showcase those than during the holiday season?”
Billingsley said that she thinks anyone who visits the events downtown for the festival will be surprised, but the most important thing will be that they are able to make holiday memories.
“We want them to know that there’s so much more happening downtown than they may even realize, but it’s also family-friendly,” she said. “Traditions are so important and it’s something that you can do over and over again. So we hope that families will come out and do that.”
Downtown Lima will have more promotions and events this holiday season and to stay up to date on them, visit its Facebook page.
To stay up to date on the Holiday Festival and even find a map of all activities, visit the Downtown Lima website. Downtown Lima will also post the map to its Facebook page.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
