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Tipp City’s Winter Yuletide Gathering spreads holiday cheer

Photos: Winter Yuletide Gathering

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By Katherine Ullmer , Staff Writer Updated 12:22 PM Wednesday, November 18, 2009

If you missed Tipp City’s “A Winter’s Yuletide Gathering,” a two-day holiday open house for businesses in the downtown historic district of the city, held Nov.14-15, you can still catch a large part of the wonderment in the shops that dot the city’s main street year-round, now decorated for the holidays.

“It was a wonderful great weekend and we had great response from the merchants,” said Matt Owen, president and CEO/executive director at the Tipp City Area Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Tipp City organization.

The Yuletide Gathering was sponsored through the Tipp City Partnership. Santa came through the town on Saturday in a carriage and was a hit with all the kids, Owen said. “We had about 2,500 people in town for those two days. “One of the shops, Urban Ava, (which sells Vera Bradley items, among other fashion items), said they doubled their sales (from last year’s event),” Owen said.

“Due to the (warm sunny) weather it brought a lot more people into the downtown,” he said. “Many of our shopkeepers reported record sales.”

Many of the shoppers, seeing the shops, which are unique and offer one-of-a-kind items, for the first time, often come back and buy later in the season, he said. “They realize they can’t go to a big box store and buy the same item.”

Sally Watson, a potter, who sells her wares in The Potter’s House in the Hotel Gallery, a collection of unique shops, said she was happy with the number of the people shopping.

While M&J’s Gift Boutique said they were down a little from last year’s sales, according to Owen, on Sunday Nov. 15, they were doing a brisk business and customers had to line up to buy their jewelry and other gift items.

Cairn’s Toys, crammed with stuffed animals and toys of every variety, also saw good business and young and old alike enjoyed standing by and playing with the life size toy Santa and Egyptian figurines outside the shop.

The antique shop Down a Country Lane closes the week before each year to get ready for the big weekend, Owen said. “They work 24 hours a day with very little sleep to get ready,” he said. “People shouldn’t miss that store when they come,” he said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2341 or kullmer@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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