INNISFAIL – The Christmas season has officially begun.
The 2018 Hometown Christmas helped kick off the season of giving on Nov. 17.
The one-day annual event is presented by the Innisfail and District Chamber of Commerce, along with several partners including Parent Link Centre, the Innisfail Lions Club and the Town of Innisfail.
“We started doing Hometown Christmas in 2014 and we moved it to Saturdays (in November) starting in 2015,” said chamber manager Carla Gabert. “We use Hometown Christmas as a celebration of the start of the Christmas season. It’s a kickoff to our Santa’s Sleigh program.”
Hometown Christmas highlights local businesses and organizations, while hosting a variety of fun, Christmas-themed activities for the entire family, including Christmas crafts, cookie decorating, horse-drawn wagon rides, a musical jam session, hot chocolate and the Innisfail Christmas Farmers Market.
“The businesses throughout town are having specials and customer appreciation days. We have Santa going around (visiting kids), we have wagon rides and a festival of lights,” said Gabert.
Time honoured traditions and a couple of new items were part of the event, including the festival of lights at the Anthony Henday Campground.
Gabert said the event is well attended and supported by the community every year.
“It’s a great way to showcase our businesses in town and show people everything that Innisfail has to offer,” said Gabert, noting visitors attend from all over Central Alberta. “It’s a large event for the community. We’ve had great business support, both as sponsors and as participating businesses.
“The people have come out. They really enjoy it,” Gabert concluded.
