On Saturday, December 14 the El Reno Main Street Program hosted The Downtown El Reno Christmas Experience with great success! We were very excited to team up with the City of El Reno to expand on their existing event, The Holly Jolly Trolley, by bringing in several of our Community Partners and additional activities.
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The City of El Reno and The Canadian County Historical Museum manned the Holly Jolly Trolley operations where the City sponsored free trolley rides with Santa and the museum sold hot chocolate to help raise money for their many ongoing projects. Santa spent the evening visiting with trolley riders of all ages. With the Heritage Express being the only rail-based trolley in the state, this is obviously an experience you can only have in Historic Downtown El Reno. We have been incredibly fortunate to have Santa in Downtown El Reno two weekends in a row but the real magic on Saturday came from our Community Partners. In addition to the trolley rides Wesley in ACTSion was on site with their Bookmobile providing free Christmas books, El Reno Fire Department made smores in Youngheim Plaza, the Lincoln Children’s Choir entertained attendees with Christmas carols, Iron Tree provided families with gingerbread house kits to decorate and take home, Redlands Community College hosted Elf University where elves in training were invited to work on crafts and Reindeer food. The El Reno Main Street office was transformed into Santa’s Workshop where you could decorate and build a wooden toy to take home, Cultivate Real Estate opened their office to give attendees a warm place to draft their letters to Santa before dropping them into our special North Pole direct mailbox. Downtown businesses Fringe, Make It Sew, Cocobella’s, Local Trends, and Bronze Seal also all hosted their own individual events/activities as well as offering sales and promotions to encourage downtown shopping just before the holidays.
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The event ran from 4pm-7pm and saw well over 400 attendees, made up of both El Reno residents and out of town visitors of all ages. We had incredible weather, and downtown was bustling with activity.  We had a great time, received a lot of wonderful feedback, and are looking at ways to expand and improve the event in 2025. Keep an eye on the El Reno Main Street Program’s website (www.elrenomainstreet.com)  and our social media pages for a post event survey!
