Your S&B guide to Jingle Bell Holiday

The holiday spirit is set to take over downtown Grinnell as the annual tradition, Jingle Bell Holiday, brings festive cheer to local streets on Friday, Nov. 21 from 5 to 8 p.m. 

The jolliness comes after much work by The Grinnell Area Chamber of Commerce. Months ahead of the festival, they reached out to local businesses to discuss possible activities and gather ideas. From there, they collaborated with each business to plan and coordinate the festivities.

“The goal of Jingle Bell Holiday is to help build community and support our local small businesses,” said Rachael Kinnick, president and CEO of the Grinnell Area Chamber of Commerce. “Right now we have over 40 businesses and organizations that have shared with us that they’re participating and we expect a few more to join us.”

Stephanie Latimer, owner of Bates Flowers by Design, decorated her shop window with tall christmas gnomes. Latimer has been participating in the event since its early days. When you first walk into the shop, you are met with Christmas themed hand soap, quirky ornaments, such as avocados and tacos, and festive greenery. 

“I always get a kick out of seeing little kids come in and how excited they are, and the music just makes it fun energy,” said Latimer. “And I’m excited just for what we have going on in our suite because we have a lot of businesses here that weren’t here last year. So that brings a fun energy too. So I’m excited to see different people [come] through that maybe haven’t done it before.”

Loralei’s Giftshoppe is filled to the brim with Christmas decorations. Shelves are filled with red and white stick candles, elf figurines and Christmas wreaths. Christmas cards for sale are on display with nutcrackers and multiple small christmas trees with ornaments ranging from reindeers, snowmen and santa clauses.

.sno-pullquote-69202cae60622 { display: flex; float: left; margin: 30px 30px 30px 0; width: 50%; border-color: #888888; border-top-width: 5px; border-right-width: 5px; border-bottom-width: 5px; border-left-width: 5px; background-color: #dddddd; } .sno-pullquote-69202cae60622 p.pullquotetext, .sno-pullquote-69202cae60622 p.quotespeaker { color: #000000 !important; } .sno-pullquote-69202cae60622 .pullquotepic { width: 33%; margin-left: 25px; } .sno-story-body .sno-pullquote-69202cae60622 p.pullquotetext { font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.4em; } .sno-pullquote-69202cae60622 .quotebar { background: #dddddd; flex: 0 0 90px; margin-top: -15px; margin-left: -15px; padding-left: 15px; padding-top: 15px; margin-right: 15px; } .sno-pullquote-69202cae60622 .largequote { color: #888888; } .sno-pullquote-69202cae60622 .quotebody { width: unset; }

“We are continuing to just tweak our merchandise and get a bit more stock of things that we know are good sellers. In fact, today we just got a large order of Iowa made milk house candles made in Iowa,” said Lori Vos, owner of Loralei’s Giftshoppe. “We’ve got a really popular kitchen towel line that we’ve reordered on it because it is very, very popular too.” 

Channing Fraker, owner of Channing’s Custom, has been working on doing bigger displays in front of her window and has plans to continue ramping it up even more, she said, as Jingle Bell Holiday approaches. This is her second year participating in the holiday, but her first at her new location on 4th Ave.

“We hear that it is a great crowd that comes through. But what’s also great is the fact that we have over 10 local small businesses represented in here,” said Fraker. 

Fraker allows businesses to be represented in her shop on a commission or wholesale basis. “So besides just me and my business being able to have all of those eyes on us, you know, the other 10 small businesses that are in here also get to ramp up their sales and deals.”

Fraker’s store will feature a surprise bucket with free items or discounts, along with food from a pop-up sourdough vendor. 

“I want you to walk through those doors and feel welcome, even down to this scent when you walk in,” said Fraker. “And we’ve got lots of options for whatever you’re needing, whether it’s just a small gift, or whether you just want some inspiration of how to decorate. We hope that we can be useful in a magnitude of ways.”

As the streets are being decorated, store fronts are becoming more festive and shop owners are stocking up on Christmas items, the Jingle Bell Holiday promises a fun spirited kickoff to the holiday season. 

“It’s great for people that are at any age, no matter where they’re from [or] what stage of life they’re in,” said Latimer. “So it’s just a nice sense of community in the community.”

The full schedule of festivities, as well as a list of participating businesses, can be found on the Grinnell Area Chamber of Commerce’s website.