Christmas spirit alive and well in our community

It’s been unseasonably warm this week, but that shouldn’t prevent all of us from getting into the Christmas spirit. In fact, the general lack of snow and warm temperatures, combined with the Lovell Area Chamber of Commerce challenge to light up the community, has seemingly caused homeowners and businesses to adorn their building, house and/or yard in Christmas lights as never before.
First of all, hats off to the Town of Lovell for the amazing new and brightly lit downtown Christmas wreaths and decorated light poles. In our humble opinion, downtown Lovell has never looked better. We’re not exactly Leavenworth, Washington, but the lights are spectacular. Byron and Cowley are looking festive, as well.
Great job, Town of Lovell crew.
We urge our readers to take a look at our annual gift guide on pages 14 and 15 of this week’s issue. The pages are filled with ideas for Christmas gifts that can be purchased locally.
There’s nothing quite like having an item in hand to examine and consider when it comes to gifts when items purchased online so often produce disappointment. Having strong merchants is also a huge part of being a vibrant community, keeping life fun and interesting and providing interaction with our fellow community members during shopping trips, not to mention providing many jobs.
Money spent locally turns over in the local community many times, enriching many lives in the process.
Remember, too, that local businesses sponsor Little League teams, various organizations and clubs and myriad activities of all kinds. Try getting Amazon to purchase your lamb at the junior livestock sale. Indeed, the first place organizations seeking funds go is the local business district. Many mom and pop businesses are operating with a very thin profit margin, if they make any money at all, and yet they give generously to all manner of causes because they believe in supporting local activities.
Do we respond in kind? Do we support those who support our youth and adult clubs, teams and organizations? We often talk about paying it forward, and it’s often on a personal level. But that approach can apply to our local business community, as well.
We urge our readers to take a good look at what our local stores have to offer. Get out and pound the sidewalks. We know you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
— David Peck