'Tis the season

The Lincoln Christmas Stroll seemed to have hit a stride in its second year year, coordinating a community-wide event that incorporated long-standing events like Santa's Workshop and the Christmas Bazaar with events at other locations throughout town.

"What I found when I started asking around was basically somebody was in charge of every part of it, so I just tried to work with them to figure out what they were doing and how we could help them or promote for them," said Olivia dietz who, with Sarah Muse, took on organizing it this year.

The stroll was originally planned by Tammy Jordan and Tiana Valler for 2020, but as with so many things that year, it fell victim to COVID-19 restrictions and cancellations. It got off the ground in 2021, and this year Dietz and Muse were asked to help out with it. Dietz said they wanted to expand it and promote it a bit more to attract people from out of town.

"Everybody who I talked to pretty much did something at their business, which I thought was cool. I guess that's the collaboration of our town, to get everybody involved and have a good time," Dietz said.

Santa's Workshop

With at least 88 kids showing up to make gifts for friends and family, this years Santa's Workshop was one of the largest yet.

"We've got a great turnout. I was told to plan for 100 kids," said Jill Frisbee, who organizes the annual event for the Lincoln Parent-Teacher-Student Association.

For the second year in a row kids got in free with the Blackfoot Valley Optimist cub footing the bill for each child to take part.

"They're planning to do that as far in the future as they can," Frisbee said.

In addition to the Blackfoot Valley Bible Church and American Legion who do crafts every year, Frisbee said Jen Wiederhold also used her laser cutter to make wood ornament kits the kids could glue together. "She did all of that on her own."

She said about 20 people volunteered to mind the different tables and help the kids make their gifts.

Over the years Santa's Workshop has grown from just five crafts to 10 this year, plus the American Legion's project.

Frisbee and her "right hand girl" and sister Jenni Cotton came up with most of the other crafts the kids made, researching ideas on sites like Pinterest.

"Theres always a challenging craft for the volunteers," Frisbee said. "Kathy Tams takes one for the team almost every year. She seems to get whatever's challenging." More than a few of them wound up on the floor of the gym as Tams and her fellow elf Cailey DenBoer helped kids funnel them into the balloons.

This year, that meant stress balls made with balloons that were filled with Orbeez water beads. Frisbee said they had 50,000 orbeez on hand for the popular project.

"I'm pretty sure the stress balls are going to the kids," she said. "They're not giving those up. I had three adult children having a ball with them in my house last night."

Frisbee thanked everyone who showed up and recognized school custodians Derek Perez and Gabe Harris for their help in making the workshop a success.

Annual Christmas Bazaar

As part of the Christmas stroll, Dietz and Muse also helped coordinate with the annual Christmas Bazaar and secured a second location at the Lincoln Baptist church for their overflow vendors.

"Once I got filled up I would send people to them for the Baptist Church," Bazaar organizer Jill Sallin said.

Sallin thinks with a little more coordination between the stroll and the Bazaar it could get even bigger, filling up multiple buildings in much the same way the Helmville Bazaar does every year.

"I think most of the vendors here – I have one from Helmville and I think one from Great Falls – the rest are from Lincoln,"She said. "I think it could turn into a bigger thing.'

Although Sallin has organized the bazaar for the last two year and plans to be a part of it in the future, she said she'll be handing the bazaar back over to long-time organizer Ann Pryor and her daughter Shelly.

"I've got to let things go with commuting to Helena," she said.

Wagon rides

To get around town for the stroll , Billy Cyr had his wagon and team out and about. However, it wasn't Brutus and Sampson in the harness this time. The team that has become something of a local institution in their own right are now fully retired.

Cyr said Sampson is between 25 and 30, which is extremely old for draft horses, and Brutus is 23.

"They did the homecoming this year. That's the only time they we hooked them up," he said. "they give little kids rides. thats the extent of their workout. Last year when we did this we had to quit early because they were done."

This year Cyr had four horses he rotated throughout the day: Amazon and Aztec, a pair of Halfingers, a blue roan draft horse called Sage and a red roan named Rose.

New this year

New to the stroll this year was a pop-up shop at the Bushwackers building, which is slated to become a wholesale showroom for Blackfoot River Branding, a new division of Last Best Place Gifts owned by Tammy and Joe Haas.

After the Haas' closed Bushwackers as a restaurant they chose to expand their laser engraving business to include printed and embroidered promotional items.

During the stroll their pop up shop featured items they produce in Lincoln as well as a wide variety of gifts and stocking stuffer-type items brought up from Tammy's store in Ennis, which won't normally be sold in their new showroom.

"We might do some more 'pop ups' like this," she said "We might do some in the summer, like during the fourth of July or when there are big events."

They are planning to have another pop up shop at the building once more before Christmas.

Lincoln Schools Business Professionals of America Club also brought a new event to the Stroll with activities and pictures with Santa to the Lincoln Library.

"We're just volunteering our time to be part of the Christmas Stroll," said BPA Advisor Laura Bullis.

She said librarian Eleanor Pierce had coloring activities for the younger kids, while BPA provided more challenging STEM-related act-ivies for the older kids.