Everybody’s always telling you to Shop Local. It’s better for the environment, it supports our local merchants and yada yada yada. Yes, we believe all that, but next Friday, Dec. 16, between 7 and 9 p.m., we’re going to give you an extra reason to shop local. Together with the Montclair BID, we’re turning Montclair Center into a Window Wonderland — with live music, contests for shopkeepers and shoppers, and even a Santa-saurus!
We asked you back in November to Name That Holiday Window Contest and Nellie nailed it. (Holly: give that girl a prize!) Now it’s all coming together with more than a dozen downtown stores participating, and all kinds of entertainment lined up. Alan of the Porchistas is going to play a few songs.The Salvation Army Band will be on hand and Jazz House Kids Student Ensemble will provide jazz standards and holiday cheer in the atrium of the Clairidge.
Plus, the same life-size baby T-Rex that wowed football fans at Giants Stadium last Sunday will be walking the streets of Montclair with a Santa hat, window shopping himself. He’s the mascot of Bloomfield-based Field Station:Dinosaurs, which opens in Secaucus next May.
In addition to judging the windows, enjoying the music and the dino, many of the stores will have special treats. InsaniTea will be serving free samples of holiday spice tea and pumpkin bread, Aunt Jean’s will have hot cocoa, and when we get our voting page up next week you’ll have the complete map, hear about even more treats and be able to start voting for the holiday window you love best.
And we have some contests for you!
Window Wonderland Photo Contest: We want your pictures of wonderful local stores and it doesn’t have to be just downtown Montclair. It can be any local store in the state of mind we call Baristaville. To enter, just upload your photo of a local holiday window in our Flickr group.
Window Wonderland FourSquare Contest: If you’re already on FourSquare, it’ll be easy to play along. If you’re not, now’s the time to sign up. We’ve loaded all the competing stores onto FourSquare and these “Window Wonderland” locations should pop up when you’re downtown. We’ll see who’s signed in at the most venues (or if there are several, we’ll pick one of those) to get a prize. When you sign in, take pictures and leave tips.
We’re excited about how many people are coming together to make this a great night and the great feedback we’ve been getting. “We are having a blast dressing up the windows. My staff actually stayed late to get to continue putting the finishing touches,” Jeannette Lature of Aunt Jean’s wrote to us. “So excited. What a great bonding moment for and my staff. BRAVO!!!”
Here are the venues participating so far…
Amanti Vino
30 Church St.
Modern Yarn
182 Glenridge Ave.
Creative Endeavors
575 Bloomfield Ave.
Hip Chic
533 Bloomfield Ave.
InsaniTea
570 Bloomfield Ave.
Just Kidding Around
507 Bloomfield Ave.
Starseed Yoga
215 Glenridge Ave
Studio Kids Art/@The Art Studio
211 Glenridge Ave.
Aunt Jean’s
12 North Willow
Edge Mid-Century Designs
461 Bloomfield Ave.
Nest
15 S. Fullerton
Essex Fine Arts
13 S. Fullerton Ave.
Seven Gifts
332 Bloomfield Ave.
Johari
465 Bloomfield Ave.
Culture Couture
53 Church St.
OSKA Montclair
5 Church St.
Fleet Feet
603 Bloomfield Ave.
Cafe Amici
32 Church St.
What is “Montclair Center”? Is it an area or specific BID?
It’s a state of mind.
I think it begins at the Pathmark and ends at the vacant DCH automobile site, and includes the side streets on both sides of Blmfd. Ave wherein there are commercial business. Somehow, it is not as ridgely defined as some other business centers in the nearby areas, but that is it.
Sandy….Does it include the old DeCozen car lot with that beautiful black & white ’59 Olds tucked all the way in the back just languishing away?
Sounds like a nice Friday night.