An annual event geared toward jump-starting your holiday shopping while keeping it local is in full swing already in Jacksonville.
The 5th annual Santa Stroll is happening right now in Jacksonville with more than 40 area businesses participating to help holiday shoppers save while supporting locally-owned businesses.
The Santa Stroll is now a joint venture between Jacksonville Main Street and the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce. Chamber President Lisa Musch says the event is bigger and better than ever and now is the time to purchase a Santa hat full of savings.
“We are very excited. We’ve got over 40 business coupons in the Santa hats. Lots of great saving opportunities with our local businesses. So we are excited for people to get out and get their hat and get their holiday shopping either started or finished or wherever you’re at in the process. But by just supporting local, we call it twelve days of loving local with this event and we are excited to be able to offer it again.”
Santa Stroll Hats are available at County Market, Jacksonville Main Street, Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce, and Jacksonville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau offices.
The Santa Stroll began as a Main Street event in 2018 as a downtown event, and Musch says since the pandemic, the Chamber of Commerce joined in to help businesses and shoppers alike across the whole city.
“Two years ago when Covid hit, we joined in with them because a lot of the stores were only offering curbside service or really trying to ramp up during the holiday season so we spread it out. It used to be held just over Small Business Saturday but we spread it out to over a twelve-day period so that people would have more time to shop and use the coupons.
And that’s been really very popular because this way with forty different coupons, that’s hard to get to within a couple day time frame. Now you’ve got a good twelve days to get there. And a number of our coupons last through the end of the year as well. So some of the stores have decided they want that shopping to continue through the end of the year too.”
Santa Stroll hats contain coupons for local businesses and services that range from food and drink to clothes, gifts, and even mass transit and travel. Musch says since everyone seems to be affected by the current economic climate and rising inflation, it’s more important than ever to help support local businesses whenever you can.
Just remember shopping local this holiday season is so important to our local community and these businesses who work hard every day to bring us something unique to Jacksonville.”
Musch says quantities of the hats are limited so don’t wait. The 5th Annual Santa Stroll is running now through next Saturday the 26th.
