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true true true

Businesses Wonder What Future Holds For Spencer "Christmas At The Square"

By Mitch Legan

Posted December 8, 2019

Spencer Santa

Santa Claus takes notes during Spencer Main Street's "Christmas at the Square" in Spencer on Saturday (Mitch Legan, WTIU/WFIU News)

Residents from around Owen County visited downtown Spencer Saturday for what could be the last “Christmas at the Square” there for a while.

That’s because the Owen County Commissioners are expected to unveil an edited festival ordinance proposal next Monday, and unless the new proposal varies significantly from the old one, “Christmas at the Square” will no longer be at the Owen County courthouse in 2020.  

The commissioners’ existing proposal – which is currently tabled – contains a clause that prohibits anyone from using the courthouse during a special event. If the commissioners keep that clause in their new proposal, Christmas at the Square would be fundamentally altered, according to Spencer Main Street President Julie Coffin.

“We would have to completely reimagine Christmas at the Square,” she says. “It could become ‘Christmas Around the Square.’ But then the question is, there are 10 things that are going on inside the courthouse – where will those happen?”

Spencer Main Street has been sponsoring the Christmas celebration at the Owen County courthouse for about seven years, after a group of residents created the event as a way to get people to visit businesses in downtown Spencer.

“We’re trying to get everyone alike – grandparents, parents and children – a reason to come to downtown Spencer,” Coffin says.

According to Coffin, more than 200 children visited the Owen County courthouse Saturday, where they could take a picture with Santa, get candy and an ornament and even pick up a free book as an early present.

But she says the best part about the event is that it can act as a gift to local businessowners, too.

“All the retail around the square certainly benefit from the children and their parents and grandparents who come here for Santa,” she says. “And then they stick around to get a bite to eat or to visit the shops around the square.”

Jaime Sweany, who owns Juniper Art Gallery, said the festival meant she was expecting another big day.

“There’s kind of no comparison,” Sweany says. “It is the holidays so this is a good time of year in general. But this event, I would expect to be one of my best days of the year.”

Sweany’s expectations were correct. She says Saturday was her second busiest day of the year. 

“I had the most people into my gallery since I opened in September 2018,” Sweany says. I had 31 percent more foot traffic than [Christmas at the Square] in 2018.”

She says the festival’s “passport contest” is crucial for getting people to discover her shop.

Festivalgoers can grab a “passport” of shops around the square and visit them. If they get each businessowner to sign off on their passport, they’re entered to win a $150 gift card to Babbs Supervalu.

“A lot of people will discover me, and that’s what these events do for Spencer and the small businesses,” Sweany says. “We have lots of people come in and they have a great time. They discover you and they come back and they shop the rest of the year. So, it’s a huge deal to us.”

She says many of her customers Saturday said they had meant to stop by before, and the event was what led them there.

“This event was the catalyst that finally got them to stop by and discover everything my shop has to offer,” she says.

The Owen County Commissioners will meet Monday, Dec. 16 at 6 p.m.

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