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The Holiday Stroll is underway…
Horses will clip-clop down Main Street, drawing carriages filled with families and shoppers through the village lamplight. Life-size toy soldiers will sing Christmas carols. There’ll be music, magic shows, jewelry-making and live ice-sculpting. Ridgefield’s 16th annual Holiday Stroll opens in the downtown business district Friday night, Dec. 4. And Saturday, Dec. 5, the stroll continues, with the festivities beginning with Breakfast and Photos with Santa at the Boys & Girls Club.
The Holiday Stroll, sponsored by the more than 70 businesses of Downtown Ridgefield, will go from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday along Main Street and down side streets from Governor to Prospect in Ridgefield’s village business district.
“Please come out and support the local business that put on this event. It’s one of the biggest events in Ridgefield. It’s one of the reasons that makes Ridgefield the No. 1 town,” said Bill Craig of Craig’s Fine Jewelry and the Downtown Ridgefield association.
“It’s the biggest retail event in Ridgefield,” said Kathy Graham of Fairfield County Bank and Downtown Ridgefield. “The only event that’s bigger throughout the year is the fireworks.”
Most stores will be offering refreshments as well as merchandise during the stroll, which in recent years has drawn big crowds to Main Street’s sidewalks.
Restaurants around the village will be open, of course, with most offering stroll-related specials of some kind — a dessert, a cocktail, a special entrée.
“All of the businesses, they’re all decorated for the holidays, they’ll have refreshments in their stores, they’re all stocked with merchandise,” Graham said. “It’s really a nice time to come out and visit with your local merchants.”
“The stores are going to be open,” said Craig. “The members of Downtown Ridgefield Inc. will have a blue banner in their windows, showing that they’re the ones who paid for and support this event.”
“The event is free, except for Boys & Girls Club and Keeler Tavern programs are charging nominal fees. No tax dollars go to support this event,” Craig said.
“There are 70 merchants, restaurants and landlords involved,” said Graham.
Carriage rides
The horse and carriage rides have come to be the iconic activity associated with the Holiday Stroll. They’ll be free one-way rides between the library and Lounsbury House, with boarding at either end. People dressed as elves will tend the carriages, and Santa and Mrs. Claus will ride along. The carriage rides will be offered Friday night from 6 to 9:45.
There’ll be six carriages rolling, five “buckboards” that can seat large groups hayride style and one that Graham describes as “a Cinderella-type horse and carriage” that has a different “kind of romantic” feeling to it.
“We even had a proposal one year on one of the horse-drawn carriages,” Graham said.
Magician Tom Pesce (see other story) will put on magic shows at 7 and 8:15 Friday night at town hall.
There’ll be live ice sculpting by Bill Covitz of Ice Matters, from 7 to 9 Friday night on the grass near The Toy Chest and Prime Burger. A former Ridgefielder, he works with chain saws. “That’s always fun,” said Graham, “… a world class ice carver, using chain saws.”
SPHERE will offer a free jewelry-making workshop at its storefront in the alleyway behind Planet Pizza on Friday night from 5 to 10 and again on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Caroling
There’ll be lots of caroling. From 6:30 to 9 Friday night, members of the Ridgefield Chorale will be strolling and caroling, as will singers that Downtown Ridgefield is bringing from New York City who’ll be dressed as toy soldiers.
“They’re going to be going around singing at the stores and businesses that are our members — they’ll go into the restaurants and real estate agencies that are our members, and the stores,” said Craig.
On Saturday, from 1 to 3, members of the Ridgefield Boys & Girls Club will be strolling and caroling.
Two stroll-related events will be offered at the Boys & Girls Club. It’s Pizza and Movie Night at the club Friday night from 6:30 to 8 — in case parents are in the mood to dine out, or just want some time to stroll and shop. Kindergartners through eighth graders will be able to relax at the club, at a cost of $10 each for members and $15 for non-members that includes pizza, soft drinks, popcorn, and the movie.
And Saturday morning, from 8 to noon, the Boys & Girls Club offers Breakfast and Photos with Santa, and craft-making, holiday games, and other fun at Santa’s workshop. The breakfast and workshop are open to all ages, at a cost of $8 for adults and $6 for kids, with a $30-per-family maximum.
RMAC, the teens arts and music cooperative, will be presenting acoustic music and a bonfire with its RMAC-N-Cheese event on the library’s lawn Friday night, starting at 6.
Teens will also be offering music at the other end of Main Street, with the kids from The Barn playing at Lounsbury House from 6 to 9:30.
A wide variety of non-profits — Cub Scouts, sports teams, school groups, etc. — will be set up at the Lounsbury House porch on Friday night, led by the Rotary Club, which will have stations where people can write postcards to Ridgefielders serving in the military, starting at 6 and going “till the cards run out.”
Saturday, the Rotary Club will be offering Amber Alert sign-ups at the Boys & Girls Club from 8. to noon.
The Ridgefield Library will offer a gift-wrapping service from 6 to 9 Friday night, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Friday night from 6 to 9 the library will have an opening reception for the art show Paintings and Drawings by Spencer Eldridge.
The library also has a drop-in story time with a “Frozen” theme on Saturday, from 10:30 to 11 for kids age 3 and older.
And fans of the movie Frozen who have their cameras can take pictures with characters from the film — Olaf the snowman, and Anna — on Saturday from 11 to 1 at town hall.
The Keeler Tavern Museum is supporting the stroll with tours of the museum from 1 to 4 Saturday afternoon. Tavern tours are $8, and $5 for kids under 18 and senior citizens. Tavern members and veterans get in free.
Non-profit organizations participating in and supporting the stroll include the Playhouse, the Prospector, the Ridgefield LIbrary, the Boys & Girls Club, The Barn, the Aldrich Museum, Keeler Tavern, RVNA, the Ridgefield Police Department, town hall, and the Chamber of Commerce.
But the stroll is also a commercial event, organized by Downtown Ridgefield to benefit the town’s businesses.
“Before you go online and click and order and ship, please consider shopping locally,” said Craig, “because when was the last time you saw a big box store on a kid’s uniform?”
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