The rescheduled Downtown Light Up will be Friday, December 4.

Teresa Baxter, president of Develop New Albany, provides an overview of rescheduled holiday events.

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Good Evening,

The Downtown Light up will be on Friday December 4th. The Oath of Office Ceremony will begin at 5 pm and the light up will follow. Everything will be at Bicentennial Park. You may want to stay open a little later on that evening. Santa will be arriving on the Fire truck. We will be giving out presents to the children, hot cocoa, cookies, etc. so hopefully we will have a good crowd that will want to shop and eat at our restaurants after Santa. The City should have this on Facebook, etc. tomorrow, so please share and let us know if you will be extending your hours on Friday.

Jingle, Mingle & Shop on Saturday December 5th from 10 am to 8 pm. Please share and post your discounts & specials.

Thanks to everyone that participated at the Jingle Walk/Holiday Fest. From what I've been told everyone had a great day and I think we all enjoyed the day.

Other events that may bring more people to your shops and restaurants, keep these dates in mind.

December 1st - Raq'n Around the Christmas Tree tomorrow, Holiday Toy drive, Taste of New Albany & Belly Dance Extravaganza. 6 pm
5th - Jingle, Mingle & Shop 10 am to 8 pm
5th - The Culbertson Mansion Christmas Open House 1 pm
6th - The Culbertson Mansion - Visit from Santa 1 pm
11th - Uptown Ornament Walk 5 pm

If I have missed any dates, please let everyone know. Tis the Season and I want to do it all.

Thanks

Teresa

All Jingle Walk/Holiday Fest events are "on" today, except the tree lighting and ...

 ... the politicized street sweeper parade review and Oaf Oath of Office. These presumably will be conducted next Saturday.

Today's Jingle Walk (wine sampling) apparently is a go. Holiday Fest? It isn't yet clear.

It's 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, and I believe today's Jingle Walk is proceeding as scheduled at 1:00 p.m. However, signals remain somewhat mixed for today's Holiday Fest, which I'm taking to mean all events not pertaining to the wine sampling "jingle" walk.

As for this year's new twist of politicizing a Christmas festival with an "oath of office" ceremony, would you expect any different from the Genius of the Flood Plain?

Develop New Albany has done a good job with this day in recent years, and there always would have been a plan for rain or inclement weather, so it's hard to determine why this year's signals are so mixed.

A place to start is Facebook. If one were to search for "Jingle Walk," this is what comes up first: New Albany Jingle Walk EVENT page. I glanced at it on Thursday, and noticed a fair number of unanswered questions and some disgruntlement at the absence of stewardship.

But the city's Fb page consistently pointed the way to this COMMUNITY page, which actually has been regularly tended, and seems to be the "official" portal: New Albany's Annual Holiday Fest/Jingle Walk.

Note the difference: It's Holiday Fest first and Jingle Walk second. For the casual observer, the question is obvious: Which is which?

At around 7:00 p.m. on Friday, the city's Fb page further muddied this absence of clarity.

The city tries to delineate Jingle Walk and Holiday Fest by saying the former will proceed"rain or shine," but with the day's various branded components already confusing, the post's ambiguity is sending a message of uncertainty -- in short, sure death for the wine walk.

By 11:00 p.m. on Friday, DNA's president was on the event page belatedly answering unanswered questions (she may not have known it was there), and also sending this e-mail:

I feel badly for DNA. Uncertainty is the great killer of events, and the city hasn't helped their cause today by sending mixed social media signals.

Finally, in response to the questions I received: I know nothing about a beer component of the wine walk, so it's my ongoing assumption that sampling is confined to wine, only.