Winter Walk Turns 20

There is something charmingly timeless about Winter Walk. In many ways, it represents the best of what small-town Midwestern life has to offer. When the sun goes down, the lights come on, and seemingly everyone in town crowds onto Division Street to sing, shop, visit Santa, or take a ride on a horse-drawn wagon.  It’s hard to imagine Winter Walk anywhere else, and each year it just feels like it must have been a part of Northfield forever.  In reality, though, this is only the festival’s 20th year, and it has been growing and changing since the beginning. So here’s the rundown of some new and not-so-new aspects of Winter Walk, my personal favorites, and where you can find me on December 6th.

One constant at Winter Walk is the display of model trains at the library, which has been part of the festival from the beginning – the impressive railway setups have their roots in a single train layout brought in by the late Leonard Rado. Visitors to Winter Walk – and apparently there are somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 every year – can also count year after year on the hospitality of local businesses. Up and down Division Street and throughout downtown, almost everyone has something special going on, from special prices on goods to homemade treats to special guest appearances. It’s particularly nice to know that, after a hiatus during renovations, the market fair will be returning to Armory Square, providing a place for people to find items, both delightful and delicious, made by those without a regular presence downtown. Other non-shopping opportunities also abound. Of course, visiting Santa at the First National Bank is always a highlight for our family, but we’ve also come to appreciate other photo-opportunities, from a large train engine at the library to the James Gang at the historical society. Hopefully we’ll actually remember to bring a camera this year!

The library and downtown businesses have one other advantage as well: they’re warm.  Cold temperatures are the rule, and early forecasts seem to indicate that this year will be chilly as well.  One major exception I remember was 2015, when the crew filming the Hallmark movie “Love Always, Santa” was counting on snow and rosy cheeks and instead got 40 degrees with a light drizzle.  It all worked out ok, though: the crew returned during more seasonable weather later in the winter, downtown got to keep its decorations up a little longer, and we all got some extra winter celebration during that part of the season that is usually less festive than tiresome. 

No matter what the weather is, though, Winter Walk offers plenty to do outdoors.  My kids love the petting farm across from Family Fare (it marked the beginning of a year-long rabbit petting quest for my oldest son a few years ago), and they were fascinated last year by the sight of chestnuts roasting at Eco-Gardens.  And of course, horse drawn carriages running up and down Division offer a memorable experience to passengers and the magical sounds of hoof-beats and harness-bells to everyone else.  New this year is a parade that starts at Family Fare at 4:45 and ends up at Bridge Square for the traditional tree lighting ceremony and choir performance at five. It’ll be brief (it’s Minnesota in the winter, after all), but if you’re there you’ll get to see me go by on my way to my post at the Edina Realty booth next to Neuger Communications off Bridge Square. After freezing our fingers off distributing candy canes last year, I’m delighted that we’ll be able to hand out hot meatballs this year.  We’ll also be collecting hats and mittens for the Northfield Schools to benefit students who may not always have the winter gear they need.  There is a particular need for waterproof mittens at the elementary schools (not being a Minnesota native, my wife Kathryn learned this the cold way last year, when our son came home from kindergarten with his knitted mittens soaked and frozen so stiff she couldn’t bend them), and donations of snow pants and boots would also not go amiss if you have any lying about.

If you’re in the area the evening of the 6th, I hope you’ll stop by and see me at Winter Walk so I can share one of my favorite local events with you.