Amanda Arnold's video for Jingle Walk 2012.

Notice how I push NABC's Tony Beard toward the camera. Shucks, I get enough attention already.

Saturday's festivities a great success to all save the embittered outlier.

Yesterday's weather was nippy, but the sun was shining, and by most measurements the Holiday Fest Jingle Walk should be judged a success. I was joined at the Keg by the inimitable Tony Beard, and we dispensed eleven growlers of NABC samples to the jingle walkers.

There were glitches (tree light-up timing being one), which generally occur when people are trying to accomplish something. It looked to me like Courtney, Jala and the other DNA volunteers were busting their buns to keep their show on the road, and they're to be commended for the effort.

When the Jingle Walk finished, the Holly Jolly Beer Trolley began circulating downtown. The trolley itself is owned by the city of Jeffersonville, which evidently acquired two and maybe more of them in an abortive effort to shuttle people from the Indiana shore to Yum Center for ballgames. Matt McMahan, owner of Irish Exit, Warehouse and Dillinger's, did the legwork, and the participating bars and restaurants pitched in on the cost of the trolley.

There were some glitches ... and these generally occur when people are trying to accomplish something.

Taken as a whole, Friday and Saturday were good days for downtown New Albany. Plaid Friday (which I favor) and Small Business Saturday (less so, owing to the AmEx connection) both provided opportunities to educate consumers about the importance of independent small business and the burgeoning Buy Local movement. Holiday Fest, Jungle Walk and the Holly Jolly Beer Trolley brought people downtown, and the pubs and eateries benefited.

In fact, negativity was confined almost entirely to a solitary newspaper reporter. But why permit one man's disgruntlement to spoil the party? After all, when people are trying to accomplish something, someone's always on the outside looking in.

Holiday Fest and Jingle Walk and Holly Jolly Trolley on a day that finally feels like winter.

The Trolley is somewhat self-explanatory, and will be running through downtown New Albany following the Jingle Walk today (Saturday, November 24).

As for the Jingle Walk itself, it is the entirely worthwhile, ambling/sampling component of the Holiday Fest, New Albany's quasi-official civic Christmas kickoff, which relies heavily on  municipal employee and fire department work hours, so enabling the otherwise stone busted Develop New Albany to take credit for all of it.

Start the Holiday Season in Downtown New Albany for the 2012 Jingle Walk! The Jingle Walk will be held on Saturday, November 24th from 1pm - 6 pm. Tickets are $15 in advance ($20 day of the event) and will include commemorative wine glass to be filled at designated stops in Downtown New Albany for wine samplings.

Keg Liquors New Albany will be a stop again on this year's jingle walk, and we'll be offering both beer and wine samples. We are partnering up with our friends from New Albanian Brewing Company as they do their launch of Naughty Claus, available for the first time in bottles. We'll also be sampling other great beers from them. We'll also have Luke from InVie wine on hand pouring wine samples as well.

I will join NABC graphics wizard Tony Beard in manning the sampling table at Keg Liquors from 1 - 6 p.m. today. In addition to Naughty Claus, we'll have samples of Black & Blue Grass and Hoosier Daddy.