Downtown Columbus merchants celebrating with Not So Silent Night

Downtown Columbus merchants will be kicking off the holiday shopping season tomorrow, with their Not So Silent Night promotion.

Shopping specials, food, music and an elf scavenger hunt will be going on from 4 to 8 p.m.

Erin Hawkins with the Columbus Area Visitors Center said that there will be some new components to this year’s event including pop-up dance performances from the Nutcracker, put on by Dancers Studio Inc and the Columbus Area Arts Council in the Sixth Street Arts Alley.

The Bartholomew County Historical Society will be promoting its Christmas Trees through Time display on Thursday, with a visit from Santa Claus.

Santa will be in a sleigh in front of the museum from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.. Inside the museum is Christmas Trees Through Time exhibit, which features historic Christmas trees decorated with photos of Bartholomew County families’ Christmas memories. And there will be displays from the Xenia Miller creche collection. The museum will be open until 7.

There will be sleigh rides featuring Santa from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday evening, starting at the corner of Fifth and Washington streets downtown. Hawkins explains:

At various downtown shops you can enjoy holiday music, special shopping discounts and free holiday beverages.