Halloween and Christmas are about as different as you can get, but they do have one thing in common in Durango: Both are celebrated downtown!
The Durango Business Improvement District leads the Children’s Halloween event. Children’s Halloween was started by Southwest Sound owner Robert Stapleton, who turned it over to BID a couple of years ago. Children’s Halloween is always held on Halloween, which this year is on a Thursday. Eighty downtown merchants will offer treats for kids. BID asks that parents bring kids up to 10 years old, in costume, and they must be accompanied by an adult.
New this year is treats for kids with food allergies. BID aims to have 25% of the participating stores offer something besides, or in addition to, candy. Items on the list so far include glow sticks, coloring sheets, marbles, balloons, toys and even books. Some businesses are also offering an activity like a cup-coloring contest, a photo booth, sugar-skull painting and a name the mascot contest. There will also be coupons from participating businesses as well.
A full list of participating merchants, and which are offering non-candy items, will be available at DowntownDurango.org/Halloween.
After Halloween, BID starts working on the Singing With Santa event. Singing with Santa has occurred in Durango for nearly 40 years, and for the past seven years, BID has been at the helm. This is the kickoff to the holidays downtown, and it’s always held the day after Thanksgiving.
The community is invited to arrive downtown at 5:30 p.m. at TBK Bank, which is the title sponsor of this year’s event. We will have items for the kids, and then Santa arrives at 6 p.m. We will follow Santa to Main Avenue, and then will sing Christmas carols on our way to Buckley Park. It looks like we will have a radio broadcast of our songs this year, thanks to Four Corners Broadcasting.
Once we all arrive at Buckley Park, we will count down to the lighting of the Community Christmas Tree. Then there will be free hot chocolate and cookies, courtesy of Carvers, Doubletree Hotel, McDonald’s, Chuck Norton with Highway 3 Roadhouse and Norton’s Catering and Manna. Santa will also be available for the kids to tell him what they want for Christmas, as well as photos, but bring your own camera.
Singing with Santa is supported by the city of Durango, Durango Party Rental, Dave and Tracy from Prairie Fire Percherons and La Plata County Mounted Patrol. BID also thanks Eagle Crane for helping us hang the lights on the 130-foot tree year after year. LPEA also supports this event by making and storing a giant switch that we use to turn the lights on at Singing With Santa.
Learn more about Singing With Santa at DowntownDurango.org/singingwithsanta.
BID is proud to offer these long-standing events to the community. Please join us.
Tim Walsworth is the executive director of the Durango Business Improvement District. Contact him at timw@downtowndurango.org.
