SKOWHEGAN — The town rang in the holidays in style Saturday with a tree festival, visits with Santa, horse-drawn wagon rides and lots of other activities during the 23rd annual Holiday Stroll.
The downtown was a mecca of festivities as the sun shone and the temperature soared to nearly 50 degrees — an unusual treat this time of year.
Travis Wood, 28, of Skowhegan, stood in the municipal parking lot around noon, waiting for his daughter, Gisele Wood, 6, and her mother, Rachael Horine, to return from a wagon ride.
He said they were all having fun. The first thing Gisele wanted to do when they arrived downtown was to go to The Bankery and buy a gingerbread cookie.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “We love it. There’s something for everyone to do. Not a lot usually happens in the town, so something like this is good for children to get into the Christmas spirit.”
Gisele and her mother stepped down from the wagon, beaming. Gisele, a first-grader at Bloomfield Elementary School, said she liked the ride.
“I also went to the gingerbread cookie store — and looked at animals,” she said.
Holiday music echoed through the parking lot from a speaker outside Aubuchon Hardware, whose doors were wide open and where shoppers flowed in and out. Inside, Skowhegan Area High School National Honor Society students were sitting at tables, painting children’s faces for free.
Store manager Michelle Young, who has been at the store only two months, said she loved the fact that people were visiting the store and enjoying themselves.
“This is great,” Young said of the activity. “I’ve never been here during the stroll, and the parade last night was packed. There were a lot of people. The streets were lined.”
Police Chief Don Bolduc was helping at the marshmallow roasting station next to the Chamber of Commerce building. He said The Bankery made the large marshmallows, which were mint-flavored. By noon, 150 to 200 free marshmallows had been given away, he said.
Bolduc, dressed in street clothes, said he is a member of Main Street Skowhegan, which organizes the stroll. Earlier in the day, he had helped with a 5-kilometer road race and the weather was perfect. During last year’s stroll, it rained; and the year before, it was very cold. But Bolduc said when he worked on the parade Friday night, the weather was entirely different.
“Last night was almost perfect,” he said.
Bolduc, who has been chief since September, said he was enjoying being out in the community for the stroll.
“I think Skowhegan has a great future and potential,” he said. “I think it’s real important to be out here and doing things.” Nearby, the Tessier Farm was hosting a petting zoo, complete with crowing roosters, rabbits, ducks, cows, a goat and a donkey.
Steve Lemieux was driving the wagon led by two Canadian horses, Hector, 17, and Ti-Noir, 15. Ti-Noir means “Little Black” in French, he said.
A long line of people of all ages waited for rides. Lemieux said he was hired to give rides 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and by just after noon, there was no sign of waning interest.
“The line’s been 50 feet long since I started this morning,” he said.
At Key Appliance, just north of The Bankery on Water Street, children visited a tall, talking Christmas tree accompanied by a brown fuzzy talking cat. The activity was sponsored by the Skowhegan Lions Club.
“Did you bring me a cookie?” the tree asked Josiah Pomeroy, 6, of Skowhegan, as he stood wide-eyed. Pomeroy’s brothers, Jayden Henry, 2, and Derek Sisco, 1, waited in a stroller with their grandmother Beth Theriault.
“When you come back next year, can you bring me a cookie?” the tree asked.
“I don’t know,” Josiah replied.
In a chili bake-off contest in the municipal parking lot, Alex White, of Athens, took first place, as he did last year.
A festival of trees at Redington Home, a craft fair at Bloomfield Elementary School, cookie decorating at Computer Improvements and free hot cider and cookies at River Road Artisans Gallery were just some of the activities peppered throughout town Saturday.
Santa Claus hosted a breakfast at Tewskbury Hall on Island Avenue; Skowhegan Nursery School hosted a jingle run; children’s author Lynne Plourde, a Skowhegan Area High School graduate, read aloud at the Children’s Cottage; and Hight Chevrolet held a Toyrific Toy & Food Drive in its showroom. LaCasse Bats had ornament and yo-yo decorating, Lynette’s Cards & Gifts helped children make snowman soup and Somerset Public Health invited children to visit Santa and create a holiday craft.
Children also took part in an elf scavenger hunt, in which businesses hid elves in their merchandise and children searched for them.
Inside The Bankery, the sweet scent of baked goods wafted through the shop and into neighboring Skowhegan Fleuriste. Visitors were buying all sorts of treats including cookies, tarts, rolls and breads. A popular item was challah, a braided bread often consumed during Hanukkkah, which starts Sunday.
Amy Calder — 861-9247
Twitter: @AmyCalder17
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