Christmas In Merimbula

It’s been another very difficult year for our business community, and we know that for many of us we are entering what we hope will be a very busy Christmas period with mixed feelings of worry, exhaustion and a little bit of hope that the worst is behind us. It is in that spirit that we are determined that nothing is going to stop us from decking our halls this year!

Behind the scenes, the Chamber has been working on the plan to transform the Merimbula CBD into a vibrant and visually exciting Christmas shopping destination that will set the scene for our festivities and revitalise our community spirit.

Design Plan

Over the last few years the Chamber has invested around $15,000 in various Christmas decorations. Armed with our recent purchases and previous years donations, including our brand-new Santa sleigh, the plan is to bring all the design elements together to create a consistent Christmas narrative that runs along Market Street.

Big Tree and Santa Sleigh

Our big tree and brand-new Santa sleigh will be installed on the decking area in Centrepoint Square, which is the area around the Visitors Information Centre.

Garlands

This year the Chamber will use hundreds of garlands to decorate the Market Street streetscape and will be arranging for the garlands to be place on the external building facades along the street.

We are currently doing a stocktake on how many garlands we have, which will determine how much of Market Street we can cover. The plan is to put permanent fixtures in place so the decorations can be hung safely and securely each year from here on. See garland map document for details.
Please advise if you currently have a garland from last year and we will organise for it to be collected.

Christmas packs

Santa sacks, naughty elves and timber trees will still be available for members to display. Businesses, who don’t already have these items on loan from the Chamber, can request for the decorations to be delivered to your business in the next few weeks.

More information about the naughty elf competition will be provided when the elves are delivered.

Business contributions
In recognition of the difficult business environment in which we are operating in, we are asking businesses to make a small contribution in the form of a donation to the Chamber in the following amounts. We are also taking all of the fuss out of it and we will be doing all the work for you.

Your donations will help cover the cost of the following

• Contribution towards some of the cost of Christmas Decoration

• Purchase of fittings and Professional installation (and removal) of Garlands along Market St

• Christmas Pack for members who haven’t already received one

• Installation (and removal) of Giant Christmas Tree and New Santa Sleigh in town Centre

• Christmas Shopping Day activities

• The Chamber will put on a Christmas BBQ and drinks for businesses to enjoy

Please click on the link to support our towns Christmas Festivities.

Members $100
https://ourmerimbula.tidyhq.com/public/shop/products/members-christmas-package

Non-Members $150
https://ourmerimbula.tidyhq.com/public/shop/products/non-members-christmas-package

Key Dates

These are the key dates to save in your calendar!

Date	Time	Event
November 2021	Various times during business hours	Christmas packs to be delivered to CBD businesses
Week beginning 22 November 2021	Various	Garlands and fixtures to go up in the CBD
Saturday 27 November 2021	5pm	Lighting of the big tree and Chamber Christmas event.   The Chamber will put on a Christmas BBQ and drinks for businesses to enjoy, wherein we will also turn the lights on for the big tree and celebrate together! Looking forward to seeing you there!
Saturday 11 December 2021	All Day	Saturday 11 December will be our official Christmas shopping day. We are currently arranging various events that will take place in the CBD and will add to the festivities
Thursday 6-Sunday 16 January 2021	Various times during business hours	Christmas pack up. Decorations will be taken down and packed away.

We are excited to work with you to create what we hope will be the best Christmas we can for residents and businesses and to welcome back our visitors and holiday makers.

Thanks to everyone for helping to make Christmas Great again this year.

Kelly Maher
on Behalf of the Chamber Committee
committee@ourmerimbula.com.au