Dec 4, 2016 3 min read

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Washington and Greene counties, even if the weather isn’t cooperating.

Thanks to a wonderful and festive weekend filled with parades, open houses and light-up nights, the holiday season is in full swing.

Residents in both counties are fortunate to have a fantastic slate of events that bring their communities together and promote their local businesses.

In Washington, the annual Christmas Parade Friday night included plenty of cheer, but the new Holiday Market at the Community Pavilion on South Main Street gave the event an economic jolt and offered shoppers a place to peruse potential gift purchases before, during and after the parade.

“We just wanted it to be a nice capstone to the tradition of the parade,” Washington Citywide Development Corp. Executive Director Christy Bean Rowing said of the market.

It’s important to refresh even popular events with new activities, and the Holiday Market was a welcome addition to an already well-attended parade.

“There has been amazing local support,” said Carole DeAngelo, the O-R Plus event marketing manager. “It’s another show of why these community events are so successful in Washington County.”

The same can be said in Waynesburg where the growing Holiday Open House on High Street offered free horse-drawn carriage rides to visitors this year. The open house organized by Waynesburg Prosperous & Beautiful showcases many of the small businesses in town and is a nice precursor to the parade down High Street the following afternoon.

Much the way the new Holiday Market in Washington gave a boost to the parade in that town, another event later Saturday in Waynesburg playing off the parade in Greene County. The second annual “Christmas in the Burg” gave people a chance to eat good food and sample wine, spirits and beer at four locations in Waynesburg just a few hours after Santa Claus made his triumphant arrival to town.

It’s another way to add events to not only attract shoppers to downtown business districts, but also keep them there longer.

And there are many other successful community events elsewhere in Washington and Greene counties and the Mon Valley.

This should be a priority for every town as they work to build their downtown business districts and bring in more shoppers who are willing to open up their wallets. There has been a revival of sorts in recent years with the advent of Small Business Saturday that follows the traditional Black Friday shopping holiday, so this is one way to build on that success.

These Light-Up Nights and Christmas parades have been around for generations. But it’s an encouraging sign to see local towns building off those popular events as they promote the small businesses that are the lifeblood of communities such as ours.