There is almost nobody that can deny a love for the holiday season, but this season is especially great in Downtown Alpena. There are so many fun things to do that allow you to get out and enjoy some time with your family and with your community in a gorgeous, Hallmark-esque setting. 

Next weekend, on Saturday, November 19th, 2022, Downtown Alpena has its Holiday Open House event. There will be live music at some of the participating locations and each participating business will be decorated with holiday decor that is sure to make you smile! There is also a chance for you to win a gift basket put together using items from the participating downtown businesses. To enter to win this gift basket, you must make a purchase at one of the participating businesses and then you will receive an entry stub where you can write your name and number and return it to Santa’s mailbox by his house in Culligan Plaza. This will be a great event to enjoy on a beautiful Saturday with family and friends! For more information on the Holiday Open House, please visit the Facebook event page.

Another event that everyone will love is the Bolenz Jewelry Holiday Parade! It will begin at 5:30pm on Friday, November 25th, 2022 starting at the Annex building parking lot at the corner of Chisholm Street and 9th Avenue, it will travel down Chisholm Street, turn left onto 2nd Avenue, and right onto Water Street before ending in the parking lot behind City Hall. As always, there will be a lighting of the Christmas tree in Culligan Plaza after the finish of the parade. This is always such a fun event to snuggle up and enjoy a hot chocolate while you watch it, bring your family and snuggle up for a very fun parade! For more information on the Bolenz Holiday Parade, please visit www.alpenachamber.com. 

Santa is coming back to town and has visiting hours once again this year! For the first three weekends in December, you can visit Santa on both Fridays and Saturdays to tell him exactly what you want for Christmas. On Fridays, Santa will be available from 5pm-7pm in his house in Culligan Plaza and on Saturdays, he will be available from 12pm-4pm again in his house in Culligan Plaza. Santa is well-equipped with some very helpful elves this year from both Alpena Agency and Alpena Alcona Area Credit Union. We are very excited to host Santa again this year in Downtown Alpena and we can’t wait to see the community come and visit! For more information on the Visit With Santa event dates and times, please visit our Facebook event page.

This year, the Downtown Development Authority is partnering with the Huron Humane Society and the Brush Up Pottery Studio to do holiday ornaments! You can purchase the little packages shown below that contain two ornaments and a paint kit that you can use to decorate the ornaments before bringing them back to Brush Up Pottery Studio so that they can bake them for you. Then, the DDA and Huron Humane Society will be hanging up the community’s ornaments on the big Christmas tree in Culligan Plaza for the week leading up to Christmas and through the New Year celebration. We are hoping to see a lot of interest in this as we would love to have the tree completely full of the ornaments decorated by our amazing community members. Each package is $20 and is part of a fundraiser for the Huron Humane Society. We are so excited about this and can’t wait to see the community enjoy it! For more information about the holiday ornaments, you can visit our Facebook page.