Christmas in the Village: This past weekend, Zionsville celebrated their annual Christmas in the Village event with 2 days of holiday fun. The festivities got underway with a parade down Main Street to welcome Santa and Mrs. Claus. The parade included the Zionsville HS marching band, two dozen Great Pyrenes dogs (big white dogs!), an elk, reindeers and Dave’s toy train leading The Claus Family to Nancy Noel’s Sanctuary.
There were carolers (somewhat freezing due to the harsh wind) strolling and Santa Claus greeting kids throughout the weekend plus the Kettle Korn booth that shows up all over Boone County at events through the year.
Why Shop & Dine Local: Over the past few months I’ve traveled to every corner of Boone County. I’ve visited our festivals, stopped into most every gallery, studio and tourism attraction, toured our towns and villages and discovered something new each time. I’ve also enjoyed great meals for lunch and dinner at many of the locally owned restaurants our great county features.
What I’ve learned through these travels is, like most every location in the United States, the economy has hit our local stores and restaurants very hard. Which is why I urge you to consider shopping and dining locally this holiday season. Instead of a trip to a downtown mall or outlet center, buy some of your holiday gifts in Boone County instead.
You can stop in one of our great galleries and discover a perfect Christmas gift that’s truly hand-made. From the Wright Gallery in Thorntown to Faucet & Flame in Lebanon, every Boone County community has a collection of stores that contain all manner of great gift ideas. Instead of spending money on gas driving to a far away shopping center to save a dollar or two, keep your money in our local economy and save the travel time and cost.
Then there are our many locally owned Boone County restaurants. I’ve gotten to know many of these restaurants’ owners thanks to their participation in the Taste of Boone County event we host every year and am always impressed at how much our restaurants care for their communities. Plus, we have some truly great places to eat here in Boone County. Whether it’s one of Chuck’s breaded tenderloins at the Pizza King in Thorntown or a New York strip steak at Cobblestone Grill in Zionsville, our locally owned restaurants deserve your business.
Looking for an Ultimate Christmas Tree Experience? Dulls Tree Farm is one of my favorite places to visit during the Christmas season. For not only can you pick out, cut down and bring home the absolute perfect tree for your home, Tom and Kerry Dull’s farm includes a wreath barn, gift cabin and the Stone Cabin Inn – all wonderfully restored log structures that harken back to how the holiday season was for our earliest settlers in Boone County.
For directions and more information about Dull’s Tree Farm – www.dullstreefarm.com
If you’d rather not go to the field to cut, Dull’s Tree Farm has a pre-cut lot with premium Fraser fir and West Coast Noble Fir. You’ll also find some of their own Scotch Pine, White Pine and Canaan Fir trees. And we’re talking award winning trees here as Tom Dull has won many State Fair blue ribbons for the trees he grows on his property.
Currently the big barn that the Dulls use to process trees is in a national contest to be restored and painted. Please go to the following website to learn more about the contest and to vote for their barn. You can vote once per day per computer. The contest is sponsored by the National FFA and Campbell Soup. http://www.helpgrowyoursoup.com/barn_dull.aspx
As you make your holiday plans, be sure and include our own Boone County merchants and restaurants for a shopping or dining stop. They’ll very much appreciate your business and you’ll probably bump into someone you know when you do. You can find a list of various locally owned businesses on the Boone County Convention & Visitors Bureau web site – www.boonecvb.com
We’ll be back before Christmas with more news and opinion. Until then, enjoy this most wonderful time of the year.
