A scene from South Main Street, Christmas in Davidson 2009. (Bill Giduz/DavidsonNews.net)

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

More than 20,000 people are expected in town this week for Christmas in Davidson 2010, which runs Thursday to Saturday nights downtown. This year’s festival is scaled back somewhat from recent years, but it will be more Davidson-focused, according to interim downtown manager Kim Fleming.

• Read on for more about the weekend, including a downloadable event and parking map and schedule.
• Watch a 4-minute video interview with Kim Fleming, CLICK HERE>

Christmas in Davidson won’t quite be the three-ring circus it was in recent years, with events all over town. Instead, most activity will be focused along Main Street, which will be closed nightly with carolers and other live music, vendors, carriage rides, and other events.

“I think it’ll be a little different this year,” Ms. Fleming said in an interview. “In prior years, we’ve had things kind of spread out, it’s been a larger event. This year we’ve really tried to scale back and concentrate on Davidson businesses, and really just the community of Davidson.”

Kim Fleming

All events run 6-9 p.m. nightly.

Santa Claus will visit with children each night in the Davidson library branch Community Room, and the Live Nativity scene will be on view nightly at Davidson United Methodist Church.

Trolleys will shuttle visitors from Exit 30 area parking to downtown. And a “Taste of South Main Square” on South Main Street will feature treats from Restaurant X, Campania Cafe, and Fuel Pizza, as well as performances, including musicians from All Strings Attached. Most of the festival’s favorite traditions will be back, from the Doggie Fashion Show (Friday at South Main Square) to the tent with artists and vendors on the Village Green.

Under the big tent and along Main Street, all of the participating vendors, artists and businesses will be local. “The difference there is we are supporting Davidson businesses, Davidson nonprofits and Davidson artists,” Ms. Fleming said. “You will see a difference in the quality of merchandise that will be represented in the tent, as well as things that hopefully don’t compete directly with our own stores and businesses here in Davidson, so those people will really have a chance to … get people into their storefronts.”

Rusty Knox Band plays Friday 6-9 at Wachovia Bank and Saturday 8-11 at Summit Coffee. Other local music this weekend includes: Mike Orlando Friday and Saturday nights, 6-8, at Flatiron Kitchen +Taphouse, Davidson Express at Summit Coffee Friday, 8-11. The youth band Cynergy plays behind Summit Saturday afternoon, 3:30. Other performances are planned at South Main Square, the Village Green and Davidson Village Inn.

Businesses are planning their own special events, both large and small. Summit Coffee on Main Street, for example, will have its usual musical lineup this week, while serving hot chocolate out front. Main Street Books will have book signings by local authors and the annual visit and photos with Curious George (Fri.). Davidson Village Inn will have live music all three nights. The Pixie Chicks will be back at the Needlecraft Center doing face painting.

Some businesses not on Main Street will share spaces with Main Street businesses.

Schools and other local performing groups will be on the stage at the Davidson public library branch nightly, while the Davidson Community Players’ Connie Co. youth theater will perform nightly at Town Hall, 216 S. Main St.

HELP FOR OTHERS

Meanwhile, students from Woodlawn School will conduct a canned food drive for the Loaves & Fishes pantry at Ada Jenkins Center. Bring your offerings to Summit Coffee any time during the festival.

One of the booths along Main Street will be host to a Christmas challenge: The 340 children of Nyarweng, a tiny village in South Sudan, lack a school. They’ve challenged Davidson citizens to finance and build a LEGO school over the 3 nights of Christmas in Davidson. Sales of the tiny bricks are aimed at raising at least $5,000, for the “Raising Sudan” project of the nonprofit Mothering Across Continents. Nyarweng is the original home of one of Sudan’s lost boys, James “Lubo” Mijak, who now is a U.S. citizen living in Charlotte.

Meanwhile, the 3rd annual Cookies for Kids’ Cancer bake sale is schedule Thursday through Saturday nights at Lake Norman Realty, 310 S. Main St. It’s part of a national campaign to raise money for a non-profit organization for pediatric cancer research. (See our Real Estate & Home page story.)

THEATER: ‘CHRISTMAS STORY

Davidson Community Players will open their production of a stage version of the classic holiday film “A Christmas Story” on Thursday. The show runs weekends through Dec. 19. For more info, see ourNov. 30 Theater Notes.

CHRISTMAS PARADE

Don’t forget the 28th annual North Mecklenburg Christmas Parade, which steps off Saturday at 1 p.m. on Main Street in Davidson. A collection of marching bands, performing groups, floats, antique cars, fire engines and other marchers will head south on Main Street to downtown Cornelius.

Plan ahead: N.C. 115 (Main Street) in Davidson and Cornelius will be closed from around noon until around 3 p.m. during the parade.

MORE INFORMATION

Christmas in Davidson runs 6-9 p.m. Thursday to Saturday, along Main and South Main street in downtown Davidson. Details on the town website.

More info on the North Meck Christmas Parade on the town website.

DOWNLOAD a printable entertainment schedule and map, (PDF) CLICK HERE>