Event helps kick off Christmas season in Medford

More than 500 people attended a drive-through holiday event sponsored by the Medford Area Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors group on Friday, Nov. 27. Participants began at City Hall and ended in the Medford City Park heading down Main Street and Wisconsin Ave. to check out holiday displays and characters.

At City Hall, there was a scene from the classic movie Christmas Vacation followed by elves hard at work in their toy making shop. More elves were at play by the Chamber office and on Main Street the crew at Feet N Motion reenacted scenes from the movie “Home Alone” while Santa, accompanied by firefighters from the Medford Area Fire Department, waved to participants from the department’s ladder truck.

Visitors saw additional light displays at area businesses before ending at the Holiday Magic on the Medford Riverwalk display done by various community groups including the Medford Kiwanis Club, Medford Morning Rotary, Holy Rosary Catholic Church and others.

As with other events this year, the Chamber event kicking off the official start of the Christmas season in Medford had to be modified due to COVID-19 concerns. The traditional gathering to light the downtown Christmas tree was replaced with the drive-by event to encourage social distancing.

In addition, the Chamber altered its traditional Holiday Christmas Corner promoting area businesses to an online event where local businesses presented products over a live-feed and community members could view and place orders for them. About 20 area businesses participated in the online sale with more than 100 products featured.

On Monday evening, the Chamber held its annual Christmas Trees for Charity auction. Groups were invited to decorate trees that were auctioned off to raise money for local charitable organizations. Altogether, the auction raised $2,535 for local organizations.