NEWBERRY — It’s almost time to start getting ready for the holidays, and from Nov. 3-6, downtown Newberry is holding its 2016 Holiday Open House.
Thursday hours are 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday hours are until 7 p.m. On Sundays, stores will be participating from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m, unless time is otherwise indicated.
The Holiday Open House was started many years ago by some longtime merchants who would have a one-day event where they would serve refreshments.
“As the Downtown Merchants Association grew, we decided, let’s all get together and all do an open house on the same day. It would make it a little easier for folks to come downtown and they won’t be confused about whose open when and to just make it a bigger and more fun event,” said Barbara Miller of the Downtown Merchants Association.
This year, 18 businesses are actively participating: Armfield’s, Michelle’s, Making It Personal, As Time Goes By, Newberry Flag and Garden, Krazy Daisy, Elizabeth’s on Main, Blackmons Jewelry, Books on Main. Figaro Market, Newberry Arts Center, Out on a Whim, The Gallery, Material Things, Gentlemen’s Corner, Carolina Gifts, Newberry Opera House and Leslie, Ltd. Antiques.
The Flying Pie, Half Full Coffee & Wine and Olwen-McKenna’s Tea Room also will be open to provide food and refreshments. Some stores will be offering discounts on products, drawings for gift cards and the opportunity to win door prizes. Door prizes will vary depending on the business.
“Normally what we do, we would have a little poster in each of the participating stores with either a picture of a turkey or an elf on it,” Miller said. “Each creature will have a name, so people can pick up an entry form and go to each of the different stores and fill out the name of the turkey or elf that they see in the store. That encourages people to go to as many stores as they can.
“Those participating stores will then have either gift certificates or merchandise prizes from their stores to hand out,” she added. “After everyone has shopped around, they can take their form to any of the merchants in the stores where they end up and we’ll take those later and have a drawing for a prize.”
For Miller, events like this are a great way to encourage people to shop locally.
“You get a lot of advantages to shopping locally. Economically, it just makes sense to keep businesses locally. If you shop at a local store, you’re helping the owner support their store. You help keep that money in our local economy,” Miller said. “We think it’s good to promote these with local folks. This is a way to encourage people to come to their own hometown and see what’s there. We think downtown is kind of neat and we hope to continue having interesting specialty shops and places to dine.”