rachelh@myweeklysentinel.com
CANTON — Canton will again be celebrating Light Night this year, however, things will be organized differently from previous years.
Due to COVID restrictions, Santa cannot meet children in the lobby of Chemung Canal bank. Instead, Santa will be making his rounds around town to greet everyone but still keep the social distancing in place. Chamber asks residents to watch/listen for Santa on your street and wave from your door and step outside onto your porch/steps/yard to wave.
Chamber is asking local businesses to light up their storefronts for the event. For those who do not have lights available to them, they are asked to contact a chamber member. This is for all businesses in the downtown business district area, not just chamber members. Contact Amy or Rachel if you need some lights.
A live nativity is planned for Friday evening as well, at the Main Street park, provided by the local churches.
Instead of promoting “Small Business Saturday,” Chamber has instead decided to encourage local businesses to extend their holiday deals.
They are asking business owners to provide deals, sales, promotions, etc., to help bring shoppers into stores, but do it for an extended time period, rather than one day. This is because due to COVID restrictions, it may be better for people to shop in a spread-out manner. The chamber will help promote business and sales with their channels.
The annual raffle will still take place this year. Raffle tickets will be going on sale soon, and the chamber is looking for participating businesses to help sell the tickets. Drawing will be on Dec. 18.
An additional raffle will take place this year. Chamber will provide tickets and a bucket for entries to chamber members. This will help encourage customers to shop local, and they will be entered into a drawing to win prizes from the Canton Chamber. The drawing will be Dec. 18. The event will run from Friday, Nov. 27, to Friday, Dec. 18. Contact the chamber if you would like tickets and a bucket. Any chamber member is eligible for this, regardless of location, in-person sales, online sales and more.
The next chamber meeting will be Thursday, Dec. 3, at noon at the Rialto Theatre.