City celebrates with Hometown Holidays
Downtown Warren’s tree lighting festivities will shift to Saturday this year.
Hometown Holidays will offer events on and around Courthouse Square from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday. Last year’s Hometown Holidays and the previous tree-lighting ceremony, Christmas on the Square, was held on Friday.
“A lot of people felt they were rushed to get there or not available on Friday,” said James Shuttic of the Fine Arts Council of Trumbull County, one of Hometown Holidays’ board members. “It gets darker earlier this time of year, and being a family event, it seemed like Saturday would work better.”
Trumbull County Historical Society Executive Director Meghan Reed, who also serves on the Hometown Holidays’ committee, said the move allows organizers to showcase downtown businesses that aren’t open in the evening.
“We see our role as a committee to be marketers and promoters of the downtown organizations and businesses,” she said. “While we have events from 4 to 8, it’s really designed to create a full-day experience downtown.”
This year’s event will bring back events from the recent past, like horse-drawn carriage rides, a parade that will leave from Perkins Park starting at 5 p.m. and follow a route around the square and the tree lighting ceremony with Mayor Doug Franklin at 5:45 p.m.
It also will include events that haven’t been part of downtown Christmas celebrations for years, like Santa Claus listening to children’s Christmas wishes in the log cabin next to the park.
“So many people have told us about being on the square 30, 40 years ago and seeing Santa Claus at the log cabin,” Reed said.
Entertainment will include students from Amanda Beagle’s Vocal Studio at 4:15 p.m., the Warren G. Harding High School Choir at 6:15 p.m., line dancing with Kissa at 7:15 p.m. and music by DJ Simply Ed in between performances and events.
Downtown businesses and organization were invited to plan events and activities in conjunction with the event.
The main branch of the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library will have a Candy Land Lane for children ages 6 and younger from 4 to 6:30 p.m. and also will provide a shuttle service between the library and the square.
Game Changers will have cookie decorating in the lobby of BRITE Energy Innovators, which also will host vendors from the Youngstown Flea. Fattycakes Soap Company will have a children’s Christmas market from 1 to 6 p.m. where children will be able to shop for gifts for family members.
Holiday movies will be shown at the Wean Foundation from 4 to 8 p.m., and Modern Methods Brewing Company will offer card decorating in the afternoon and live entertainment starting at 7 p.m. with Candace Campana and the CD release party for the band Black Wolf & the Thief.
Many downtown restaurants will have special offerings, and Downtown 124, which is opening at the former Jacked Steakhouse on North Park Avenue, will offer a sneak preview with small plates and cocktails.
Frank DelGarbino of Leo’s Ristorante will have ice sculptures on display on the square, which is lit up with the “Light Up the Square” program started in 2015 in memory of Saratoga Restaurant owner James Economos, who died that year.
“They really do an amazing job,” Shuttic said of “Light Up the Square.” “I don’t think people understand what an undertaking that is. It takes a significant amount of money and volunteer work to have all those lights up by Thanksgiving, and this year it looks better than I can ever remember. It really makes it look picturesque, almost like a Hallmark movie.”
Reed added, “We get a lot of requests from volunteers asking to help with decorations, and our answer is, ‘It’s already done.’ They do an amazing job every year and bring a joyful feel to the square. One of the reasons we wanted to do Hometown Holidays and make it a community staple is to build on what the Economos family has done.”
If you go …
WHAT: Hometown Holidays
WHEN: 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: Courthouse Square, 100 block of West Market Street, Warren
HOW MUCH: Admission is free.