Usually, a festival has to seem pretty special for me to come from the other side of the state. There are a few things I look for to help me made this decision, like how unusual it is, its uniqueness, and the amount of attendance.
The Christmas in Historic Springboro Festival had potential in all three categories. But even though it claimed to be “the largest 3 day Holiday Festival in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana” with an estimated 65,000 festival goers last year, I still questioned the 200 mile (each way) trip.
I had already driven so much, and I was really starting to get tired.
But I should have known better. It’s hard for me to miss a festival…
…and I found myself in Springboro before I knew it.
I even took advantage of the festival parade that was arriving as I walked onto the festival grounds.
This was a unique experience for me because I typically avoided festival parades because of the crowds and the inaccessibility to the rest of the festival. But there was something that felt right this time because I knew it would be strongly connected to the theme.
So I hung around…
…as bands played…
…tractors crawled…
…and religious groups paraded by.
There were even some celebrities present…,
…like President Lincoln (who I saw for the second time this year)…
…Santa…
…and even Ronald McDonald.
Once the parade ended, the festival became more accessible along South Main Street, where it ran an impressive seven blocks.
Unlike other festivals where there was a downtown location, vendors weren’t back-to-back down the pedestrian path. Instead…
…the food vendors were scattered in front of the homes and downtown shops.
This made it far easier for festival goers to see and shop at all of the downtown local businesses – the main reason for having the festival – while even feeling a part of Springboro’s history…
…which living history reenactors helped along in the process.
A camp of reenactors even sold bean soup and corn bread.
I actually considered the soup (because I love corn bread), but I decided on something a little simpler….
.…like a nice Chicago style dog (OK, so I really just like toppings)….
…and a candy cane brownie.
Fortunately, even for a November festival, there were ways to burn those excess calories off…
…including pitching, camel rides, and inflatable challenges.
And if the camel didn’t satisfy animal lovers….
…they had a live Nativity…
…with some farm animals…
…and even some cool owls (with handler supervision).
Various heated tents were spread along the festival route.
In these tents, you could find live entertainment….
…children’s activities…
…and shopping galore.
I mean, it is a Christmas festival, after all, so there was quite a bit of shopping….
…even in people’s yards…
…or in the downtown shops with Christmas Springboro pride.
I, myself, took advantage of the free hot cocoa in the Visitor Center.
This, of course, got me in the holiday mood…
…as well as all the holiday decorations found among vendors, people and the festival overall.
I even found myself humming some carols on the way back to the car.