Santa Claus and Mount Kisco HolidayFest are coming to town

Santa Claus will be coming to the Mount Kisco HolidayFest on Dec. 13 to spend time with children and families. Courtesy of Mount Kisco Chamber of Commerce

By MARTIN WILBUR

Mount Kisco will celebrate the holiday season in style with a downtown celebration next Saturday to provide cheer to families and hopefully a boost to local merchants and organizations.

The Chamber of Commerce’s HolidayFest is the centerpiece of the village’s holiday celebrations, bringing a full afternoon of merriment and civic enthusiasm on Dec. 13, starting with a children’s toy party at the American Legion and concluding with the Holiday Light Parade through the downtown from 5:30 to 6 p.m.

“It really should be a lot of fun,” said chamber Co-executive Director Beth Vetare-Civitello. “What we’re hoping for is to just bring some spotlight to our village and to the people that have businesses here. This is their big time and we want to support them.”

Started as WinterFest six or seven years ago, the now-annual event was rebranded after the pandemic with recurring activities while organizers have sought to sprinkle in new wrinkles over time. 

This year’s HolidayFest kicks off at 11 a.m., with the children’s toy party. Each child who stops by the American Legion Post 136 over a two-hour period will receive a gift from Santa Claus.

From noon to 4 p.m., there will be the Polar Bear Obstacle Course set up in a portion of the South Moger Avenue parking lot. Vetare-Civitello said the roughly 100-foot-long course is holiday-themed and is suitable for children from 4 to about 11 or 12 years old.

“It’s not a two-minute thing, but the kids can be entertained, and depending on the age an adult can hang out there or somebody can go shopping or just relax and grab some hot chocolate someplace and maybe a bagel or something downtown,” she said. “It’s just a way of really showing off that we value having everybody downtown.”

For at least the fourth year, HolidayFest will include the Cookie Crawl, where chamber members can sign up to participate, providing individually wrapped cookies in their store. Vetare-Civitello said the Cookie Crawl has proven to be a great way for shoppers to enter stores that they may not otherwise visit.

In the promenade between South Moger Avenue and the Shoppers Park parking lot, there will be a giant snow globe visitors can enter to take photos. Nine vendors from the weekly spring-to-autumn village farmers market will also be on hand as part of an outdoor holiday market. The vendors plan to make a donation to the Emergency Shelter Partnership, where area houses of worship provide food and overnight shelter to the local homeless population, Vetare-Civitello said.

New this year is an effort to promote the work of about 15 to 20 local nonprofit organizations and encourage donations. 

“We’re having sort of a ‘giving tree’ and ‘giving menorah’ down there, so that is an extra component that is community-minded, and hopefully everybody comes down to take advantage of giving,” Vetare-Civitello said. “That’s our goal.”

There will be QR codes available for the organizations that will go directly to their websites for the public to make donations, she explained. 

Throughout the downtown the celebration will include holiday music, firetruck rides in the South Moger parking lot and visits from Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus and Olaf from “Frozen.”

Starting at 4 p.m., the Mount Kisco Fire Department will be holding a bonfire in one of two closed-off rows of the South Moger lot, a controlled blaze designed to create holiday ambiance and warmth along with marshmallow toasting. Fire Chief Mathew Hollis said the department will comply with all state standards for a controlled fire and have sand on the pavement to protect the surface. There will also be a truck on scene to make sure the bonfire remains under control.

“It’s also dependent on weather conditions,” Hollis said. “If it’s too windy then it’s not going to happen.”

Green Street will be used as a staging area for the light parade starting at 5 p.m., followed by the parade at 5:30 p.m. South Moger Avenue will be closed from Green Street to Main Street for the 30-minute parade, Hollis said. The department will be handling traffic direction, he added.

Parishioners heading to St. Francis of Assisi Church for the late Saturday Mass, will be able to access Green Street, Hollis said.

To begin the activities, the village’s Christmas tree lighting is taking place today (Friday) at 6 p.m., in Fountain Park between Village Hall and the library. That will also be the site of the community menorah lighting Sunday, Dec. 14, at 6 p.m., the first night of Hanukkah.