|
|
|
Downtown hosting Traditional Christmas |
|
|
Written by Bernice Trick
Citizen staff
|
|
Thursday, 05 November 2009 |
The Christmas spirit is alive in downtown Prince George where Ted Moffat, president of Northern Hardware, takes a 10-cent jaunt on Champion, the long-time store attraction, which has provided about 1,200 rides annually to children since the 1950s. (Citizen photo by Brent Braaten)
The city centre sector invites every resident to join in a Traditional Christmas Downtown.
Snowflakes and trees will abound during the main kickoff event Nov. 21 throughout the core area where businesses and organizations will display the magic of the season in unique ways.
Mayor Dan Rogers said a key component to celebrate Christmas "is to light up the downtown figuratively and literally."
"Our businesses and organizations are keenly involved with the Northern Lights Festival, the downtown light up and the Festival of Trees, and it all relates to building a safer, healthier community and celebrating a traditional season with families in the downtown.
"Our spirit of giving and sharing is a reflection of what we have to be grateful for in our community," said Rogers, adding, a traditional Christmas is a great example of the task force's effort to make the downtown a focal point for community celebrations throughout the year.
Northern Hardware president, Ted Moffat said he especially looks forward to this holiday season during the special anniversary year of his Third Avenue hardware store where Christmas has been a tradition for 90 years.
Tim McEwan, president and CEO of Initiatives Prince George, says his roots reach further down in this community every year. The recent birth of a granddaughter, "born 94 years to the day that my uncle was born here, tells me my family now has an entrenched history here."
"I hope the whole city will celebrate with family at the light up on Connaught Hill and additional light ups, displays and events in downtown. The traditional Christmas project dovetails nicely with downtown improvement efforts. We need to animate, activate and promote pride to keep the momentum and focus on the downtown. It will take a combined effort of the whole community, but we can move forward," said McEwan.
Hugh Nicholson, publisher, said The Citizen would like to see the Christmas spirit light up every corner of downtown Prince George.
“For a number of years The Citizen has been a sponsor for the Northern Lights Festival's light up on Connaught Hill.
"When the organizers approached us this year, I expressed our desire to see the sculptures move down off the hill into the city centre as a way to help promote our downtown, as well as to create an event that will encourage people to come to Prince George, stay over night, do some shopping and see the lights.
"Lu Verticchio and I arranged to meet with Initiatives Prince George, Tourism PG, the Downtown Business Improvement Association and the city to determine if we could make this vision a reality.
"While we didn’t achieve all our goals, we are thrilled to see that some things we had hoped for will be occurring downtown, and with the support of all involved, we look forward to building on this for next year.
"With the support of the downtown merchants we can transform the downtown into one big Candy Cane Lane to attract residents and tourists," added Verticchio, Citizen advertising director.
From a merchant's perspective, Alison Akehurst of Alison's Embroidery & Gifts said, "We want people to know that it is time to get back to the old Christmas traditions; like shopping at quaint, small stores where people get great personal customer service and find unique gifts and wares.
"We have a lot of great stores downtown and it’s time people came to discover them. We want to let people know that it is safe to bring their families downtown to enjoy the festivities."
The Prince George DBIA is excited to be part of the light-up campaign that will make the downtown a more inviting place to be during the Christmas season, said executive director Linda Self.
"In an effort to make this happen, we encourage merchants, tenants and property owners to light up their storefronts, and take some initiatives on their block to make it more inviting and intriguing so the public will come down at take a look, and do more of their shopping downtown.
"With the help of volunteers, we will be decorating windows in many of the vacant buildings downtown. This will be a big job, but an uplifting one at the same time. We're asking for donations of decorations if people have some they no longer use. Drop them off at the Tourism Information Center, 1300 First Ave. They will be sorted and put to good use."
btrick@pgcitizen.ca
 |
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 November 2009 )
|
|
|
Who's Online
We have 141 guests and 13 members online
|
Subscribe to this comment's feed
