Low snow, high spirits

Although Father Winter has been taking his sweet time this year, the lack of snow did not discourage the Bozeman community from embracing the holiday spirit during the 43rd annual Christmas Stroll this past Saturday — including participants who completed an annual holiday-themed 5K. 

The event began with a bang during the 9th Annual Santa Run for Education and progressed into delightful nighttime fun. 

The Santa Run for Education is a 5K fundraising event hosted by the Bozeman Schools Foundation (BSF). The race had around 600 participants of varying ages representing a myriad of different schools, according to the Executive Director of the BSF, Jenn Lammers. Prizes were awarded to the top three finishers in the categories of male and female participants, the parent associations at the three schools with the highest participation and the two Bozeman School District 7 school clubs and teams which had the greatest participation, according to Lammers. 

“We just found out that two of the male winners were teachers in our schools and the female winner shared with me that she was a single mom with three kids. So this was a really great way to start the Christmas season for her,” Lammers said.

Participants were also invited into the Wilson Gym located at the race's beginning and finish line at the corner of East Babcock Street and 5th Avenue, to enjoy complimentary hot chocolate, visit sponsor booths and engage in fun festive activities. 

The event also offered a virtual race — a practice that began during the COVID-19 pandemic — which allows for those not present in town or quarantining by choice to participate. According to Lammers, the event even had racers participating from as far away as Arizona and Boston. Virtual racers recorded their time via a Garmin or Fitbit-like accessory.

Lammers explained how the Santa Run for Education is an excellent and inclusive hallmark of Bozeman community support. 

“We have people with strollers and we have senior citizens and we have people in costumes. It is the gamut of the community and it brings them all together,” Lammers said. 

According to Lammers, this year's Santa Run for Education was the highest-grossing Santa Run to date, raising over $63,000.

She went on to note the value of Bozeman’s public education, which the Santa Run for Education supports. “Education is important in Bozeman, and this is just one of the ways we show it,” Lammers said.

The Santa Run for Education certainly wasn’t the only event taking place downtown on Dec. 2. At 4:30 p.m. later that day, several blocks of Main Street — from Grand Avenue to Church Avenue, and portions of the adjacent side roads — were shut down and packed with festive Bozemanites. 

Numerous businesses and nonprofits set up booths along the road, sponsoring Christmas-related events or simply promoting their respective causes. Hundreds of pedestrians roamed the historic downtown strip on Saturday night, engaging with local businesses and nonprofits, eating delicious food and participating in a myriad of festive events.

The Christmas Stroll also saw numerous food vendors obliging hungry strollers as they explored its variety of festive encounters. According to the Downtown Bozeman website, these food vendors were either hosted by a nonprofit or donated a percentage of their proceeds to a nonprofit organization.    

In addition, countless downtown businesses opened their arms to the public and hosted exciting events. Some of these included the Annual Gingerbread House Contest Display at the American Legion, Lewis and Clark Motel’s Signature Nutcracker Collection and several festive events at The Emerson.

According to Cache Maples, the program director for Downtown Bozeman Partnership, this amalgamation of organizations and businesses makes the Annual Christmas Stroll very special. “I think the Stroll is unique in that it is a widespread event involving many different organizations,” Maples said, “It swings from for-profit businesses to nonprofits, and then [includes] our businesses downtown.”       

Maples went on to explain her love for the event. “My favorite thing is that it really helps people build a bond with downtown and want to come back in the future. And of course, it kicks off the holidays,” she said.

The Christmas Stroll was free to attend, receiving a great deal of support from business sponsors. Some of these included First Security Bank, Bridger Bowl and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, just to name a few. 

The event was also funded through the selling of the Downtown Bozeman Partnership’s $4 Official 2023 Downtown Bozeman Christmas Stroll Buttons, which were available for purchase at several downtown locations. All those who bought buttons were entered into a raffle to win various prizes, such as Bridger Bowl lift tickets and Downtown Dollars.  

Obtaining a button souvenir made one eligible for pictures with Santa at the Baxter Hotel, where the neighboring Ted's Montana Grill also provided cookies to munch on and holiday cards to fill out. According to Maples, meeting Saint Nick in the Baxter is the long-standing tradition that initially helped conceive the Christmas Stroll in 1980. 

“The Baxter was pivotal in starting the Christmas Stroll, and that includes Ted's Montana Grill, the Bacchus and the Baxter. They hosted Santa Claus and then it became such a big event that it spilled out into the streets and we had to start getting a parade,” Maples said.

Before Santa Claus made himself available for pictures, he first graced our historic downtown with his jovial Christmas spirit. Beginning at the intersection of Wilson Avenue and Main Street, the Christmas Stroll Parade made its way along the strip. Santa sat perched atop his sleigh, waving to the public and lighting up the famous Downtown Bozeman Christmas Spiders as he passed through Main Street’s intersections. The parade was accompanied by singing from the Chief Joseph Middle School Choir and escorted by cadets from Montana Youth Challenge Academy. 

Mike Zenker, working a booth for the NextGen Advisory Board of the Gallatin Valley Land Trust, held a sign offering free high fives. After high-fiving a few pedestrians, he expressed his love for the festive atmosphere.

“It seems like a lot of happiness out here and it's really nice to see the whole community come out to celebrate. I'm really, really pleased that everybody's here,” Zenker said.