A Task Force of Carefree merchants has begun planning the 1st Annual Carefree Christmas Festival and all Carefree merchants are invited to participate in the festivities. The Task Force consists of merchants from the various retail districts in the town and we hope to bring the spirit of the holidays to the town center as well as those immediate surrounding retail areas. Below are the activities planned for the festival, but we welcome your ideas and involvement. The Town of Carefree has committed to help with costs but we are also asking all Carefree merchants for a minimum donation of $100 per business to help with the cost of advertising and promoting the events. We do hope you, as a Carefree merchant, will see the value in hosting a Christmas season festival, and will participate by volunteering, becoming involved in the parade or entertainment and contributing to the funding. This is the first time we have had the opportunity to participate as a merchant district and provide a community event for the entire family over the holidays…please help support us in making this a success!

Evening Shopping
All stores are encouraged to stay open until 9:00 p.m. every Thursday night starting September18th when the new Gaslamp District is unveiled. Horse-drawn carriage rides will begin that night and continue throughout the season on Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons, leaving from the Sundial and traversing around the Easy Street loop and nearby retails areas. For the festival, all merchants are encouraged to stay open till 9 p.m. on Friday, December 12th and Saturday, December 13th and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, December 14th. Store merchants have the opportunity to have their store windows painted in Christmas themes by volunteers from our local schools' clubs. Merchants can then vote on a winner for the best decorated storefront. Merchants are encouraged to dress in "festive" attire and serve cookies, hot cider, etc. to the public over the festival weekend. Some merchants are already organizing musicians to play in their stores and will have holiday entertainment available.

Use of Empty Storefronts
Local landlords are donating vacant units for nonprofits to utilize during December. We then hope to offer a "gift-wrap" service for local customers, combining help from the Foothills Food Bank and Soroptomists. The Food Bank will have a drop-off area for food donations. Foothills Animal Rescue and Racing Home Greyhound Adoption will use empty storefronts to promote their nonprofit organizations and for pet adoptions throughout the Festival weekend. Dogs from both pet organizations will also be in the Parade of Lights. Merchants and landlords are respectfully asked to ensure that their buildings and surrounding areas are "spruced up" for the holiday season….check blown light bulbs, leaky guttering, etc.

Activities for the Festival Weekend:

Kick-off Event: Parade of Lights (Entry fee: $30) Friday, 12/12, 6 p.m. Sponsored by the Carefree/Cave Creek Chamber of Commerce.

This is a fantastic nighttime Parade that will herald the arrival of Santa to Carefree! All entries will be decorated with Christmas lights. The Parade travels twice around the Easy Street loop before delivering Santa on a vintage fire truck to the Amphitheatre, where "elves" help our local children visit with Santa and have their photo taken. Local businesses, non-profits, Cave Creek Unified School District (CCUSD) and festive Fiesta Days Parade participants are invited to enter a float or march in the parade. The only requirement is that the entry is in keeping with a holiday festival theme. To enter the Parade contact the Carefree/Cave Creek Chamber of Commerce: 480-488-3381

Festival of Trees
The Los Portales Mall management has offered use of the entire mall to host a Festival of Trees, organized by the Carefree/Creek Chamber of Commerce. This is a fundraising event for any nonprofit organization. Undecorated Christmas trees will be donated from local businesses, residents and the Kiwanis flea market committee for decoration by local designers and businesses. The Chamber of Commerce will keep an inventory of trees available for decoration. The mall is expected to have 50-60 decorated and lit artificial trees on the upper and lower levels. The public will then be invited to bid via silent auction for their favorite. Volunteers will assist in the silent auction process and all trees will be on display by the end of November. Los Portales management will also provide choirs and musicians during the Festival weekend. We are also looking for an organization or business to donate 20-25 real Christmas trees (lit) to decorate around the edge of the Amphitheatre. Strolling Carolers/Choirs The CCUSD, local churches and other groups are slated to provide Amphitheatre entertainment and small strolling groups of carolers. There's always room for more; if you know of a group, invite them to sing!

Santa
An authentic Santa will be featured in the Parade finale and will visit with children in his "Grotto." Local craftsman will donate time and materials to build the Grotto, assisted by help from Kiwanis and their flea market finds. Volunteer "elves" will assist with photography and organization of the event. Snow! The Merchant Task Force has obtained sponsorship money to hire a "dry snow" machine to blow snow across the Amphitheatre and provide great photo opportunities. It will snow in the desert this year!

Street Vendors and Entertainers
The Farmer's Market will provide merchants to sell roasted chestnuts, hot cider, hot chocolate, hot dogs, etc. via "old-fashioned" street vendors. Also included will be craft vendors and street entertainment, and even a Town Crier to add to the "street fayre" atmosphere during the Festival weekend, The Desert Foothills Community Foundation, is asking for volunteers from all nonprofits to create Christmas crafts to be sold over the weekend for fundraising. Local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts will be invited to participate in the parade and entertainment.

Holiday Music
Along with choirs and carolers, we hope to have Christmas music playing and entertainment from local school bands around the town center area. Well, that's it for now - lots happening and it's not too late to volunteer to help out! This will be the first year of an annual Carefree Christmas Festival, bringing downtown holiday festivities to the whole community. Please demonstrate your support for the event by helping us with a $100 donation:

To contribute funds, please make checks payable to "Carefree Christmas Festival" and mail to: Tirza Smalley, CCF Treasurer, National Bank of Arizona, P.O. Box 5288, Carefree, AZ 85377. To volunteer, suggest an idea or for more information, please call Jo Gemmill at 480-488-4812, email carefreetea@aol.com. or Holly Bergman at 480-595-8757, email wldholly@hotmail.com.