‘Tis the season

Merry on Main Street returns to downtown

Downtown Fort Dodge will have a very special visitor to help launch the holiday season with Main Street Fort Dodge when Santa Claus helps light up the area on Nov. 27.

Old St. Nick will start off by riding west up Central Avenue, stopping at City Square Park to light up the gazebo with Fort Dodge Mayor Matt Bemrich at 5 p.m. After that, Santa will head back down Central to Veterans Triangle Park at Central Avenue and 12th Street for the annual tree lighting

event.

Once those hundreds and hundreds of light bulbs are illuminated, Santa will head to the Wells Fargo building, 822 Central Ave., for warm drinks and indoor holiday activities from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

"ISU Extension is volunteering their folks to help with two stations where the kiddos can do something," said Sharon Stroh, executive director of Main Street Fort Dodge. "One of them is a postcard to Santa and we have a little mailbox for it to be sent, and the other one is making an ornament and it will be stamped on the back with the date and Main Street so that they'll always remember where they created it."

Members of the Silver Cord organization at Fort Dodge Senior High School will also be helping out at the event, Stroh said.

The Dariette and Ardys Mae Coffee Shop will have their mobile trailer out front to serve free hot cocoa and warm apple cider to Santa's

visitors.

The gazebo and tree lightings will be the finale for Main Street Fort Dodge's Merry on Main Street week. Merry on Main Street will kick off on Nov. 22 with holiday shopping punch cards available at the various downtown merchants, and on Nov. 25, downtown merchants will be welcoming shoppers for Small Business Saturday.