Which night should you walk into the Clugston on the Square this year? Your answer decides more of your December than it seems to. The Walk of Trees fills the Clugston lobby at 108 S. Chauncey with decorated trees. Between Thanksgiving weekend and the first Saturday of December, it is open on only five dates. Almost everything else downtown in that stretch, from the lighted parade to the courthouse nativity, lands on one of those five dates.
Columbia City Connect organizes the Walk of Trees and describes it as drawing thousands of attendees each year. Connect also runs Shop Small Saturday and Shop Late Fridays. Proceeds from the $1 tree votes cast in that lobby support downtown revitalization and Connect's community events. So the schedule below also shows where downtown's holiday money comes from.
Five dates, and what sits beside each one
The Walk of Trees listing gives the hours. The other entries come from Columbia City Connect's event calendar.
| Walk of Trees session | Lobby hours | Also downtown that day |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, Nov. 27 | 5 to 9 p.m. | 14th annual Whitley County Lighted Christmas Parade, 6 p.m. |
| Saturday, Nov. 28 | 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. | Shop Small Saturday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. |
| Thursday, Dec. 3 | 5 to 8 p.m. | Food Drive Cash Bingo for Columbia City Rotary, 5 to 8 p.m. |
| Friday, Dec. 4 | 5 to 9 p.m. | Shop Late Fridays, Merry Museum Christmas, Christmas at the Courthouse |
| Saturday, Dec. 5 | 5 to 9 p.m. | Christmas at the Courthouse; tree winners drawn at 9 p.m. |
Every date shares its hours with something else, though the evening block on Nov. 28 has the lobby to itself. Thanksgiving weekend is built around the parade and shopping. The first weekend of December is built around the courthouse and the museum. The Thursday in between has the fewest events on the calendar.
Thanksgiving weekend opens with the parade crowd, then the shoppers
The 14th annual Whitley County Lighted Christmas Parade steps off downtown on Friday, Nov. 27, at 6 p.m. The Walk of Trees opens its doors at 5 p.m. that night. The lobby is already lit before the first float rolls, and it stays open until 9, well after the half-hour parade window ends. That gives parade-goers a warm place to start and a stop on the way back to the car. Route and line-up details are posted on the parade's Facebook page.
Saturday, Nov. 28, is the only day the trees can be seen in daylight. The 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. session closes at the same hour as Shop Small Saturday, which runs 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Connect bills it as a free day for downtown businesses and local vendors selling gifts, home decor, handcrafted items and holiday treats. Connect notes that hours vary by business, so a morning start covers the most open doors. The lobby closes from 3 to 5 p.m., then reopens until 9 for an evening crowd.
For the Sunday after, the calendar lists Snowflake Studio's "Handmade Holiday Treasures," 2 to 5 p.m. on Nov. 29.
Dec. 3 is the shortest session, with little else around it
Thursday, Dec. 3, is the one weeknight the trees are on display that isn't a Friday. It is also the shortest session, 5 to 8 p.m. The only other entry on Connect's calendar for those hours is Food Drive Cash Bingo for Columbia City Rotary, 5 to 8 p.m. With no parade, no courthouse program and no store promotion competing for the evening, this is the night to stand in front of every tree before deciding where your tickets go.
Dec. 4 stacks four events into five hours
Friday, Dec. 4, has more going on downtown than any other date this season. Listed in order of start time, it goes like this:
- 3 p.m. Merry Museum Christmas opens at the Whitley County Historical Museum, 108 W. Jefferson St. The event spreads across the Thomas Riley Marshall Home, the Little Turtle Annex and the Education Center, dressed in a Victorian Christmas look by candlelight. It runs until 8 p.m. The museum's events page is where the full list of activities will be posted.
- 5 p.m. The Walk of Trees opens at the Clugston, and Shop Late Fridays begins, with downtown stores staying open until 8 p.m.
- 6 p.m. Whitley County Christmas at the Courthouse begins at 101 W. Van Buren St. It offers a live nativity, local Christmas music, hot cocoa and cookies, free of charge, until 8 p.m.
- 8 p.m. The museum, the shops and the courthouse program all wrap up. The Clugston lobby stays open until 9.
From 6 to 8 p.m., all four are running at once. Connect's own Shop Late Fridays page presents the shopping alongside the Walk of Trees, Christmas at the Courthouse and Merry Museum Christmas as one downtown evening. The order above follows the clock. The museum is the only stop that opens before dark. The tree lobby is the last door open, so it can come last without costing you anything.
Dec. 5 closes with the drawing
Saturday, Dec. 5, is the second and final night of Christmas at the Courthouse, again 6 to 8 p.m. It is also the last Walk of Trees session, 5 to 9 p.m. At 9 p.m., the minute the lobby closes, Connect draws the winners on Facebook Live.
Voting works like a raffle. Tickets cost $1 each or six for $5, and every tree is up for grabs. Each ticket you cast counts as a vote and gives you a chance to take that tree home. The six-for-$5 bundle saves a dollar against buying singles. It also rewards anyone who has toured every session and already knows which trees they want.
Where the dollar tickets go
The Walk of Trees listing states plainly where the money goes:
All proceeds support downtown revitalization and Columbia City Connect community events.
That line comes from Columbia City Connect's Walk of Trees page.
You can already see some of that downtown work. InkFreeNews reported that 10 historic-district signs went up near downtown's entrances on Sept. 4. Connect paid for the signs and the city installed them. On Oct. 29, Connect covered the groundbreaking for the Eagle Park Amphitheater. The amphitheater is part of a larger park plan that also includes a skate park, pickleball courts and family swings.
Connect organizes the shopping days that bring people downtown and the tree lobby where those people buy votes, and the proceeds from those votes go to downtown revitalization and Connect's community events.
The dates on either side of the trees
The season starts before Thanksgiving and runs past the drawing. These dates fall outside the five Clugston dates:
- Friday, Nov. 20, 5 to 8 p.m. The first Shop Late Friday, billed as an early holiday shopping night. It is one of only two Shop Late evenings this year.
- Saturday, Dec. 12, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Yulewood Gathering & Cocoa Bar at Sage + Stone, 124 W. Van Buren St., with seasonal crafts for $15.
Shop Late Fridays covers Nov. 20 and Dec. 4 and nothing in between. For shoppers who work during the day, those two Fridays and Shop Small Saturday on Nov. 28 are the main stretches of evening and weekend store hours on the downtown holiday calendar.
At Morken Real Estate Services, we follow the details that shape daily life in Columbia City, from the Clugston lobby to the new amphitheater going in at Eagle Park. If you're curious how downtown's steady reinvestment shows up in what your own home is worth, request your home valuation. We'll walk you through the numbers in person, ideally after you've cast a few tree votes.
