ELLY GRIMM

    • Leader & Times

The holiday season will be kicking off before everyone knows it, and the Liberal Chamber of Commerce is looking to help with that kickoff.

As Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Rozelle Webb tells it, things will be slightly different for this year.

“Each year we have a holiday open house, and it's usually the week before Thanksgiving. This year we're going to expand that and have two open houses,” Webb said. “Our first one is going to be our holiday kickoff, and that will be Nov. 5 from 5 to 7 p.m., and then regular business hours Nov. 6 and 7. The businesses will open up their stores for holiday sales, decorating or merchandise, whatever they have to offer for Christmas shopping and decorating. Then, we are doing our second open house from 5 to 7 p.m. Dec. 3, and then regular business hours Dec. 4 and 5. That is going to be our Christmas Wrap Holiday Open House. We invite everyone to come out to our local businesses. Right now, we have 17 businesses that have signed up to participate in this, and they'll have signs outside their shop to show they are participating. We invite everyone to come in, see what they have to offer and shop local so we can keep that money in our town. Like every year, I encourage everyone to try to find as much as they can in Liberal this year for their holiday shopping needs.”

Webb said discussions about the changes for this year have been talked about for a while.

“We decided last year we were going to do the two events this year. Some businesses that have holiday decorations for people to purchase to decorate their home wanted to do it earlier than the week before Thanksgiving, and some of the some businesses that have items for gifts wanted to wait until closer to after Thanksgiving,” Webb said. “This has been an ongoing need for our different businesses, and we decided this would be a good way to let all of the businesses be able to sell their merchandise when they want to. As it turns out, all of the businesses decided they want to do it both times, so we're glad we're glad they want to do it both times, and I think it'll be fun for the shoppers.”

Webb said the events should be a great and fun time for shoppers.

“Our whole goal here at the chamber is to help our businesses do better business,” Webb said. “So hopefully, by doing two of these, it will help our businesses have more business and more traffic through their stores. This should be a great time to get out and about and maybe get some ideas for Christmas gifts either for yourself or something you'll want to get for a family member. It's always fun seeing people out that weekend and walking around and shopping with the stores all decorated for the holiday.  Our local businesses are the ones that show the most support for the community, school activities and other major events. They have employees who live right here in town who are supporting their families and the community, and I feel we need to support them back.”

Businesses signed up to participate include  Flooring America and Furniture Outlet, Hibbett Sports, Westlake Hardware, Glik’s, The Buckle, Cato, Dunham Sports, Factory Connection, Brown’s Shoe Fit, O'Hair Salon, El-Kan Drug, Circle D Appliance, The Flower Basket, Scantlin’s Furniture and Carpet, Big R, The Crazy House, and Ada and Son Collectibles.

“We love to help our businesses kick off the holiday season and show them off to everyone, and this is a perfect event to do that. I also do some shopping myself, and there are always a lot of goodies to partake in while being out and about,” Webb said. “Overall turnout can depend on the weather, but we usually see a pretty good crowd of shoppers that weekend in terms of locals and people who come in from out of town. We love doing this event every year, and since shopping trends have changed throughout the years, we need to be sure and keep people shopping locally and supporting small businesses. We’ve got a really good number of participating businesses, I think there's a lot of shopping that can be done in those places.”

Overall, Webb said, she is hoping for success.

“Any and all businesses are more than welcome to participate, and I hope we have many of them sign up. Like I say every year, I encourage everyone to come out and shop and start their holiday shopping for this year,” Webb said. “I invite businesses to participate, and I invite everyone in the community to come out that weekend and do some shopping. It's always a really fun environment and we always have a lot of people excited about this, so come out and have fun! I want to encourage everyone to shop local, get out and participate in the open houses and help our community that way.”