Downtown Johnson City has prepared over 160 trees for this year’s Candy Land Christmas, which helps promote and recognize local businesses. Deputy Director of Main Street and Chief Communications Officer, Lindsey Jones, has been organizing the event since July.
The event has added 10 trees to its total since last year. Jones said that the goal of this event is to help promote local businesses in the downtown area, while bringing holiday cheer. The trees are purchased from a local tree farm in Mountain City far in advance to ensure that the city receives 160 12-foot tall trees.
“We are going to feature 160 trees all decorated by local business or nonprofit organization, last year we featured 150…hopefully we can continue to increase this number every year,” said Jones.
Each tree is decorated by the organization that owns it.
For instance, the East Tennessean has a tree in this year’s event. The publication’s tree is number 80 and will feature decorations of past printed publications and will showcase a QR code that will link to the publication’s website. The East Tennessean’s tree is also promoting its upcoming celebration of 100 years in publication in 2023.
“We start planning out Candy Land Christmas in early July every year. Connect Downtown Johnson City, the city of Johnson City, and the Visitor’s Bureau, we all three work together on how to grow the event, how to market the event and how to add other events,” said Jones.
This year’s Candy Land Christmas will feature a variety of events to bring in the holiday spirit. This year’s event will feature three different visits with Santa in which families will not have to pay for the pictures. The city will pay for the photographer and the photos for free.
“Small Business Saturday” was held on the same day as the tree lighting, Nov. 26. There will also be a “Sip, Shop and Stroll” event on Dec. 2 from 4 p.m. until 9 p.m.
Then there’s the Christmas Parade on Dec. 3 at 10:30 a.m., which will begin in ETSU’s parking lot number nine, at the corner of University Parkway and W. State of Franklin Road and end at the corner of E. State of Franklin Road and Legion St.
For more information about Candy Land Christmas and its events please visit downtownjc.com/candyland. You can also email info@downtownjc.com, call (423) 342-3540 or visit their Instagram, @downtownjctn, and Facebook, @downtownjc.
