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I hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.  We are having a condensed Thanksgiving this year and I for one am looking forward to it.  I enjoy spending one on one time with our family and when there are 30 people at the meal it gets hard to converse sometimes.  

This weekend the holiday season kicks off locally.  The city of Taylors Falls invites everyone to their annual Tree Lighting Festival on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  for those of you who have never been to the festival, it is a wonderful small town Christmas that is right out of a Hallmark holiday card.  The entire town gets lit up with beautiful lights and this is followed  with a parade down Mainstreet with lighted floats and of course Santa.

The town will have all day shopping on Friday and Saturday with shuttle services from Taylors Falls Canoe and from Taylors Falls Elementary School, that run from 3-9pm.

Mrs. Claus will be reading stories at the library from 5-6pm.  The official lighting of downtown takes place at 6pm with the parade following.

Saturday starts with a yummy pancake breakfast at First Evangelical Lutheran Church on Chestnut Street. The meal is free and runs from 9-11am.  They will also host a free wreath making event at the same time.

There is a craft fair at the community center from 9am-3pm.  The annual medallion hunt begins Saturday at 10am with clues being posted on Facebook.  Find the medallion and take home $100 in cash.

The Ecumenical Vespers will perform a wonderful concert at the Methodist Church on Government Street starting at 4:30pm.

The day wraps up with family bingo at the community center starting at 6:30pm.  There will be snacks and beverages available for purchase.

Sunday feature Irish Dancers at the community center at 1:30pm.  And the festival wraps up with a winter concert held by the St. Croix Orchestra with a sing-a-long at 2pm at the Methodist Church.

In this Press you will find a pull out section that is this year’s Chisago Lakes Gift Guide.  The section is filled with ideas and recipes as well as some advertisements from some of our awesome local businesses.  

I say this every year, but I urge you to make a concerted effort to shop locally this year. All of the store fronts you see while driving through the area are owned by our friends and neighbors.  Any little bit helps them and our local economy. 

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