Shop Local

Shop Montpelier this holiday season! 

All month! Spread the Love raffle. Shop at eight different downtown stores and enter to win a gift card to a downtown Montpelier store or restaurant of your choice! Three winners will be selected. Pick up your card at downtown shops or the Clerk's Office in City Hall.
 

Our downtown features a variety of holiday events throughout December. 

  • Lighting of the state Christmas Tree at the Statehouse, Thursday, December 5th 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm. Join Governor Phil Scott for the 2024 Lighting of the State Christmas Tree, featuring musicians, animals, and wagon rides. The Barre American Legion Post 10 has donated the beautiful 40-foot Colorado Blue Spruce. It will serve as a remembrance throughout the season—honoring all Vermont Veterans who have served their country. An indoor reception follows with the Governor reading “The Night Before Christmas” to the kids.

  • Art Walk, Friday, December 6th - 4 pm - 8 pm - venues throughout Downtown Montpelier

  • 130th Annual Holiday Fair at the Unitarian Church of Montpelier, Friday, December 6th and Saturday December 7th, 9am - 1pm 

  • Cocoa Crawl, Saturday, December 7th, 10  am- 4 pm. What's more cozy than a mug of hot chocolate, chocolate sweets, and anything with chocolate. Montpelier downtown businesses feature their chocolate offerings, along with live music through the day and venues. 

  • Slaphappy Santa Christmas Spectacular, Saturday December 7th 6:30 pm to 10:30 pm at the Montpelier Performing Arts Hub. Featuring 13 amazing musicians including a full horn set and large lineup of vocalists playing a raucous set of swing, blues, and rock designed to make you MOVE! Appetizers and treats, plus a cash bar at the newly opened Montpelier Performing Arts Hub. This is a FUNDRAISER for the Hub where donations will be graciously accepted on the night. 18+ event

  • Photos with Santa Fin, Sunday, December 8th 11:00 am to 1:00 pm, Guy's Farm and Yard. Join  Guys for a fun afternoon! Bring your pet and have their photo taken with Barre's own Santa Fin!

  • Two For Christmas - A Staged Reading, Wednesday December 11th, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm at Lost Nation Theater, Vermont’s award-winning professional theater presents favorite poet playwright David Budbill’s wondrous and whacky “Two for Christmas” in a new version emphasizing enjoyment for the whole family. An unique alternative to The Christmas Carol, Two For Christmas is two shows in one! Travel back in time to 1479 England in “The Second Shepherds Play,” —and end up 500 years later in Budbill’s mythical Judevine with Antoine, Doug, Arnie, and Tommy in “The Pulp Cutters’ Nativity.” Wednesday, & Thursday, December 11 & 12! Cost $10 - $26 Available as digital recording through December 31, 2024!

  • Horse drawn wagon rides, Saturday December 14th, 10 am - 2 pm - (leaving from corner of Elm and State Street) Sponsored by Hunger Mountain Coop

  • Blossom Holiday Market, Saturday, December 14th. 12:00 - 5:00 pm at Blossom Wellness Center. This opportunity to shop high-quality gifts and crafts is NOT to be missed!

  • Charles Dickens Christmas Carol, performed by Willem Lang, Sunday December 15th, 3 pm at Lost Nation Theater

  • Nine lessons and Carols, Thursday December 19th, 7:00 - 9:00 pm at Christ Church - Patterned after the beloved Christmas Eve tradition from Kings College Cambridge, Nine Lessons and Carols offers readings, music of the season for organ and choir, and carol singing in the historic sanctuary on State Street. Free. Everyone is welcome.

  • Onion RIver Chorus Winter Concert, Saturday December 21st 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm and Sunday December 22nd from 4 - 6 pm at the Unitarian Church. In a program featuring “Frostiana” by American composer Randall Thompson, the Onion River Chorus will be presenting their winter concert.

  • New Year's Eve December 31st:  Visit our New Year's Eve web page (coming soon) to see all the activities - all day and for all ages

 

Check out our Community Calendar for a full list of activites every month!