November 26 2012

If anyone is free on Thursday night and wants to join in our caroling fun please let us know - we will have carolers at many businesses in town so if you are free  between 5-7pm give us a call. We'd love to have as many singers as we can!

Mark your calendar for the final Business After 5 event of the year! Rosewood Manor will host us on Tuesday December 11. Please click here for the invitation!

Are you interested in hosting a Business After 5 event in 2013? Sign up is now open for next year's events so let us know if you are keen. Businesses are encouraged to co-host if you'd like and no matter if your business or big or small we'd love you to host. Give us a call if you want to sign up or if you have any questions.

The new Shopko Hometown store will have its grand opening this Thursday, November 29.

The Chamber has a few fun Estherville-themed items for sale! Our popular Estherville Midget blankets are big and warm and cost just $25. We've also got a handful of our Estherville pickle buckets for $20. And of course we have Estherville Bucks that are ideal for all - if you want to order some for your staff or family or friends just give us a call!

Part of the new estherville.org website is a great benefit for members - a free website! The 'traffic catcher site' is a great way to make sure your business gets found online as often as possible. To get your site up and running, please LOGIN to www.estherville.org and click REQUEST OPTIMIZATION. If you have any issues please call us. These sites are free, easy to set up (our website company helps you!) and are a great online tool for potential business for you!

Be sure to keep adding your events to Estherville's online community calendar! Any community member can submit an event, so be sure to check out the events calendar here. Bookmark this and be an active contributor so people in and out of town can find out what's happening in the Estherville area.

Santa House, carolers, shopping, window displays and TUBACHRISTMAS – Thursday November 29 is going to be a wonderful holiday night!

The “Winter Nights, Holiday Lights” event starts at 5pm around the downtown Estherville area. Santa House will open for the first time this season, and kids can visit with Santa from 5-7pm.

Be sure to enjoy late night shopping at retail businesses and vote for which business has the best holiday window display. Voting forms can be picked up and returned to Santa House

We’ll also have our wagon rides from 5-7pm, and carolers and tuba players will also be out adding holiday spirit throughout the town. Carolers from the ELC schools, Iowa Lakes and Many Voices choir will perform around local stores.

TUBACHRISTMAS will take place at 6pm at Hy-Vee and 6.30pm at the United Methodist Church. At 7pm in Library Square, carolers and TUBACHRISTMAS players will all give a lovely Christmas concert to end the evening. The public is welcome to join in as well!

Santa House is back in its Christmas location in Library Square and is Santa is available from 5-7pm on Thursdays and Saturdays from 10am-12pm until Thursday December 20. 

We would love donations of candy canes to be given to the kids visiting Santa! Thanks Heartland Americana, Inman Electric/Radio Shack, Outlet Store, Racines for Him and Her and Estherville Drug for their donations.

If you would like a poster to hang up at your business to promote Santa House, we'd encourage you to print and hang this poster.

2012 Santa House opening hours:

•  Thursday November 29 5-7pm
• Saturday December  1 10am-12pm
• Thursday December 6 5-7pm
• Saturday December  8 10am-12pm
• Thursday December  13 5-7pm
• Saturday December  15 10am-12pm
• Thursday December  20 5-7pm 

The Annual Banquet will be held at the VFW on Thursday January 17th - we'll be sending an invitation out soon but please save the date now. We plan to kick off the social hour at 5.30pm. We are very excited to plan this great night out and we hope to see you all there!

It's hard to believe it but we've already started to plan the 2013 Farm and Home Show. We'll be sending out registration forms soon to those of you who had booths last year. If you didn't and want to be put on a waiting list please contact us. The Farm and Home Show will be held on March 1-2 at the Regional Wellness Center.

Our Ambassadors visited a few businesses in November: Katie Carter at her newly relocated Center for Chiropractice Wellness on 1119 Central Ave and the new Estherville Easy Ship, part of Inman Electric/Radio Shack. Good luck to both businesses!

The Ambassadors also attended the Iowa Lakes Communty College Video Conference System Launch last week, and will be attending the grand opening of Shopko this Thursday! It's great to have so much happening in our business community.